The Class of 2012
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 1777-1806: Graduation day has come for the class of 2012 at McKinley High, and finally so has the Doctor. - Doctor Who/Glee crossover #12 (series final!)
1. Where We Begin

_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 84th cycle. Now cycle 85!_

_A/N: It's the final installment! Only took two years and some but here we are! ;) If you haven't read the rest of the series yet, here are the titles for the others:_

_**1. You'll Find Wonder. 2. Padra's Run. 3. Salvage. 4. The Generational Purge. 5. Guardian of the Array. 6. The Benevolent Doctor.  
>7. The Mistaken M. Jones. 8. Instrumental Glory. 9. A Common Cause. 10. Ex Memoria. 11. The Theater, The Theatre.<strong>_

_There are also a few single chapter stories to check out:_

_**1. Oh Doctor, Doctor. 2. A Gap In Memory. 3. Sweet Child. 4. Number Eleven in the TARDIS. 5. Number Twelve in the TARDIS.**_

_Okay, that's about it, we're all ready to go, so ALLONS-Y! ;)_

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><p><strong>"The Class of 2012"<br>****Doctor Who/Glee crossover #12 (final)  
>Doctor Who: 11th Doctor (+ various cameos, incl. (alternate, female) 12th Doctor)<br>Glee: New Directions (s3 graduation)  
><strong>

**1. Where We Begin**

_New York City, in the year 2073_

Julian Lucas had been on the phone with his younger daughter for what might have been forty minutes already, attempting one more time to convince her not to throw away nursing school. Ginny still had it in mind that she would go and become a famous actress. By no means did he think she didn't have the talent. Performance was in her blood, a gift from the Berry branch of her family tree, but he wanted her to be secure in her future. The argument had taken a turn when Ginny had pointed out that if her older sister could go off traipsing through time and space with aliens, then she could go after what she wanted, too.

They hadn't told Ginny about any of it until recently, until Gemma's trips with the Doctor had become an unavoidable reality. Recent times could definitely be described as such. Neither Julian nor his wife were entirely aware of what was happening at the moment, but they knew their ability to get in touch with their older daughter had been spotty at best, and they weren't getting very many answers.

Hearing the dog's barks outside, Julian had moved to the window, and then he'd seen… "We'll talk more about this later," he told Ginny, and after they'd hung up, he'd gone to open the side door. Gemma's dog Paulie had been left in their care while she was away, but now the animal had been visited by a friend.

"I told you I'd come back, didn't I? No, it hasn't been that long. I've got a treat, have you been good? Of course you have, you're a good dog…"

He cleared his throat, and the woman who'd been crouched before Paulie paused and looked up. She hesitated, giving Paulie a few more scratches at the ears before standing up.

"Doctor," Julian greeted the woman.

"Mr. Lucas… hello," she dusted her hands off. Paulie kept to her side, tail wagging obliviously and happily. "I was just…"

"Is Gemma with you?" he cut her off, and she breathed out.

"Not at the moment, no."

"Will you come into the house, please?" Julian asked, though it didn't feel so much like the Doctor had a choice. She moved forward and entered the Lucas house. Julian had only just shut the door when Sophie appeared on the stairs.

"What did she say, did you…" she was saying, but she was silenced when she saw they weren't alone. "Doctor, what are you… Is Gemma…" her tone shifted as though the Doctor might have been coming to inform them that something terrible had befallen their daughter.

"She's fine, she's good, she's… as far as I know," the Doctor quickly reassured her, though she found it impossible not to air her concerns. The other woman fixed her with a hard gaze. To look upon Sophie Perry when either of her daughters were concerned was to see how much she had of her own mother in her. They may have been Perry, or Lucas, but at heart they were Berry women.

"Where is my daughter?"

X

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

As much as they'd tried to keep their eyes open for any sign of the Doctor, once they'd been lined up and the graduation ceremony had officially started, they had all but forgotten about Gemma and what they suspected would be happening that day. It wasn't until the caps had been tossed that one of them noticed something amiss. Specifically, it had been Puck, who'd happened to spot Walter Reskin in the crowd, sitting next to an empty seat and looking entirely distracted; he wasn't paying attention at all to the ceremony, though he was absently clapping because everyone else was. Gemma was gone.

"Hey, did you see her leave?" he had to get himself closer before Kurt could hear him over the noise.

"What?" he asked, and Puck frowned, turning to find Quinn.

"Gemma's gone," he told her. She looked where he pointed, and she saw Walter, too, saw how concerned he looked. Quinn turned to Santana, who'd overheard Puck. She was thinking the same thing, and she'd gone so far as to try and signal Walter. When he saw her, she pointed to the side, and he nodded.

"It's go time," she grabbed Rachel, while Puck signalled their non-graduating contingent.

"Santana, what are you…"

"You wanted proof, well it's here. Now. We have to go."

"Hey, Finn, come with us," Kurt had gone to his stepbrother.

"Where are we going?" he asked, willing if unaware.

"You'll see," Kurt told him.

It was easier than they would have imagined, for all fourteen of them to squeeze their way down the stage and out of the audience and converge on Walter, standing in the aisle.

"He's here, isn't he?" Artie asked him, and Walter nodded.

"Gemma said you'd know what to do," he revealed, and Artie sat up in his chair, turning to the others. It had been months with all of them slowly but surely finding their way together, and they may still have had one to convince and another to inform, but he knew this would be dealt with once they saw the TARDIS, it had to. It was really, finally happening.

"You heard the man. We need to get outside." The group started scurrying on its way, but Artie hung back, knowing they'd have stragglers.

"We can't just leave…" Rachel hadn't moved. "Do you really want me to believe that he's out there?"

"No, I don't, I want you to move. Go," he pointed up the aisle, and Rachel didn't argue once more, instead moving along in silence. Walter was standing next to Finn almost as though he was making sure the boy, the last one they needed, didn't wander off. "You need to come with us, too. I promise it'll make sense soon," Artie told Finn. "Right now we need to hurry."

It might have been a miracle, or he really was that easy to convince, but soon the three of them had joined the others, and they were making their way out of the school. The chaos of the crowd worked in their favor, at the very least, in making it so that no one was there to stop them or notice all that much. It was very likely that before long someone's parent, or Mr. Schuester, or Coach Sylvester would notice they'd gone, but by then, with any luck, they'd be far off, sailing on the TARDIS.

"There it is!" Brittany had been the first to spot it when they reached the parking lot, and for a beat, they'd stopped. Those of them who'd never seen the blue box, only heard of it from the others, were astounded. It was real.

"What do we do, just walk up to the door and knock?" Kurt had asked.

"That's exactly what we do," Quinn replied, and they were off again.

It had come down to Artie to do it, as they'd come to crowd around the door, all fifteen of them. There was a moment where nothing happened, and the tension weighed on them, but then… The doors opened, and standing there was a tall lean man with a red bowtie. He stared at them all, almost as baffled as they were. Artie stared at him, his face entirely unfamiliar, especially accounting for the fact he'd known the alien as a woman, but he could almost recognize something in this one, something he'd held to in the years since their last encounter, the ancientness in the youth.

"Doctor?" he finally spoke, and he knew it really was him, without a word. Then there was Gemma, standing just behind him, and she was smiling.

"Come on in, before anyone sees you," she'd said, and the group had obeyed.

To some of them, the inside of the ship was something they had seen before. To others, it was slightly different. Those of them stepping on to the ship for the first time were in complete awe. And Rachel, who had kept a firm grip on her doubt had no choice but to let it go. She didn't care how crafty any of them were, they couldn't create a room that was bigger than the outer walls that contained it. Gemma moved to rejoin Walter, and she was having to contain herself so not to burst out laughing, watching him experience the TARDIS for the first time. The last one in was Finn, and having absolutely no idea what was happening, his reaction was expected.

"What the hell is going on? Where are we?" he asked. Gemma turned to the Doctor, tipping her head to him. This was his to answer.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor, and this is my ship."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	2. The Giant & the Sweet Girl

**"The Class of 2012"**

**2. The Giant & the Sweet Girl**

_The Mercer Colony – in the year 5099_

When he had left his home world, he had done it because he saw it as his only way to survive. They had all heard the rumors, they knew with the spread of the disease among his people that there were those out there who meant to lock the planet down, to prevent anyone from travelling away from it and risk carrying the infection with them. Those in the position to make that decision were entirely content to ignore the fact that not all of them were contagious, and that they wouldn't be, not if they could be treated. There were two problems there of course. The first was that with the reputation his people had for their violence and destruction, most everyone else was all too content to have been handed a way to both control and restrain them. The second, which weighed on them almost as strongly as the disease, which took away most of their will and their energy, was that as far as anyone had seen, there just was no cure out there, and while they had no contagion on them at the moment, it might only have been a matter of time before there was.

This could have made his flight from his world come off as careless and dangerous, but he had to do it. He was not going to get any better sitting around and waiting for death like the rest of them. They had been mighty once, and feared, and revered… Toh had never known the glory days. He had been born ill and would likely die that way as well, unless he tried not to.

He'd had no real aim. 'Away from here' seemed as good a place as any. He hadn't chosen the Mercer Colony either. He'd been keeping to himself, never bothering anyone, until a passenger on the ship he'd been travelling on noticed him and made a complaint. He was 'kindly asked' to leave, with the compensation of enough credit to keep him afloat for a few days. Not that they'd helped him very much, as no one would serve him. He'd walked, and walked, and one day he'd collapsed.

When he'd come to, he had found he had been moved to a bed, where a human female was approaching him with a syringe. He'd panicked and nearly struck her until he saw the small child strapped to her back. This gave the woman the chance to explain herself. Her name was Renna, she'd found him out on the road and she and her husband had brought him inside. She worked at the hospital, and the syringe was to give him something for his fever. He assured her it would do no good, that he'd always been sick, and that there was no cure to what he had. She didn't look convinced, and maybe so she would leave him be, he agreed to let her draw blood when she asked.

The collapse had taken much of what little strength he had, and for the next few days, although he thought to leave this place and find shelter of his own choosing, he remained bedridden. The woman and her husband took turns looking after him, though the man, Peter, was not nearly as trusting. Toh interpreted this out of his silences, and out of the fact that only Renna ever dared to bring the child into the room. Eventually he had learned the little girl was called Padra, which he learned was a type of sugar cultivated in Mercer. More often than not, the one-year-old would be sleeping against her mother's back, but when awake she would smile from over Renna's shoulder, and Toh came to call her sweet girl. Whether he had any trust for the humans was one thing, but he was not insensitive to the little one. She didn't seem to care that he never smiled; she did it plenty for the both of them.

He had been letting Renna tend to him, and he was aware of her giving him something, several times, saying that it could possibly help him feel better, but he paid it little mind. He was so familiar with his usual state that it took a few days more before he began to understand something had changed… He felt stronger.

His recovery spanned nearly a year, and though it began with him condemned to bed, with the passage of weeks, as Renna insisted he needed to exercise, he started helping them, in the house, out in the field… It had not been asked of him, but he did it. He had always been ill, but as he felt strength fill him, more and more, he began at last to believe something he hadn't done before: he believed he would live.

It wasn't until that first year had passed that he learned what it was, or rather who it was, that had brought on his health. Renna had tried to explain it to him in greater detail, but it was beyond him. The basics of it though were that as Renna had examined the blood she'd drawn from him, her research had led her to examine more blood, from other residents of the colony, thinking she might find something that would pacify the disease in his own. And to her own astonishment, she had found it… in her daughter. It was Padra's blood that saved him.

He could have left them then, now that his life had been handed back to him, but instead he had stayed, and he had continued to work for them, live with them. He couldn't go back to his own world anyway. Even if they hadn't been quarantined, why would he go only to be infected again? More than that, though he would never say as much, to the humans or to himself, he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay with the sweet girl and her family; they would always be safe so long as he was around.

Maybe if he'd left when he could, they might never have ended up the way they'd done.

X

_In the year 5103_

He was not the kind to walk about the colony at all times, but Toh did not spend all his time inside the house, so the majority of the people in Mercer were aware of his existence and his residence. He kept to himself, though he helped Renna, and Peter, and he played with Padra. They had never spoken of his former illness, or how he had been rid of it. So when people came to the house one day and he overheard them talking, asking Renna how she'd done it, knowing of his kind and of the situation his world was in, he understood for the first time that she'd been keeping quiet as well. She had known more than she'd let on, she'd known where he was from and what afflicted him, and the fact that the only known cure resided in her daughter's blood had been kept secret. Seeing the men who'd come inquiring about it, Toh could see why. His instincts were that they should keep them as far away from the family as possible.

X

_The Great Jade Moon, in the year 5104_

He hadn't asked why, didn't need to. When Renna had told him to take Padra and get away, he had done it. He had been aware of all that was happening around them, with the deal that was made, how they'd come to make it and why. None of it mattered now. The girl was in danger, and he knew why. He would protect her by any means.

They had stopped at the Great Jade Moon in hopes of throwing off anyone who might have been on their trail. Toh had gotten them into an inn, hiding Padra from everyone, so they wouldn't even know he didn't travel alone. Here he would be able to get a better idea of where they stood and where they could and should go next. For a few days he'd thought they might have been in the clear, but then one morning he knew they weren't. So he did what he had to do, and he put Padra in the care of the innkeeper, expressing the danger she might be in if she was ever discovered.

He'd known deep down there was a chance he would not return. If his coming back to her would compromise her, if his staying away would free her…

It had been two days after he'd left Padra with the innkeeper that he was discovered, cornered. When they questioned him, he learned some valuable information. For one, he realized that although they were aware of a cure, they didn't know nearly as much about the one who held it. He wasn't entirely sure they even knew if the child was male or female.

He also knew that now that they had him, even if he could get away, they would never leave him, and sooner or later, though he would not mean to, he would lead them back to Padra. He was never going to do that, nor would he ever speak a word that would let them find her. He only had to provoke them, and he would die, needing for once to trust, that somewhere out there someone else would come forward and protect his sweet girl.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	3. Coming Together

_A/N: Yeah, so things are evidently not ready to get back to normal... More delays to catch up on... But I'm working at it :) For now, here's five chapters... Still several more to go before I'm back on track._

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><p><strong>"The Class of 2012"<strong>

**3. Coming Together**

_Inside the TARDIS_

It seemed impossible for some time for any of them to decide who was the most overwhelmed by this turn of events. There were seventeen of them spread out around the circular room, and while many were simply content to take it all in, remarking how much it had or hadn't changed, or how it did or didn't meet their expectations… Finn looked almost catatonically taken with shock and confusion, and Gemma wanted only to go and deal with him, and with her grandmother, as Rachel was forced to accept that everything they'd been telling her was true, but then the Doctor pulled her aside for a moment.

"All this time, I thought you were following me, but you weren't, were you?" he asked, and she looked back to the mumbling boys and girls, pointing, staring at what they saw. Some were looking dangerously close to reaching out to one button or switch. "You were looking out for them."

"There might have been a bit of that," she admitted. "But it wasn't all of it, or else you would have seen a lot more of me."

"Then what was it?" he asked.

As a reply, she'd reached into her pocket and pulled out a small blue envelope, torn on the side from where she'd opened it after it arrived in the middle of the night. The Doctor turned it about, stared at it for some time, before eventually reaching in to pull out the note inside. He read it quickly, and when he'd finished he'd looked at her. She didn't have to say a single word more, the dots connected themselves, and once he'd handed the note back to her, he knew exactly what was needed of him. He was almost smiling for a moment as he went around, looking at each one of the faces surrounding him. The way his finger ticked the air as he went from one to the other, he might have been sorting them, triage in a disaster, and the ticking finger stopped at the tall boy in the red gown.

"Alright then?" the Doctor asked, and Finn hesitated, staring at him.

"He doesn't know anything about this yet, we didn't get to tell him," Quinn informed him, and he turned to her, staring for a second before he remembered how not very long ago, to him, she had been standing in the TARDIS with him, in a pink dress, and he'd had to let her go. But this was not that day, not for her. Regardless, he was so happy to see her, to find her safe and sound, and his smile returned, his hands reaching up to tap her shoulders, which made her smile back.

"That won't be a problem, will it? Now," he turned back to the boy. "What's your name?"

"Finn… Hudson," he sounded just shy of unsure.

"Hello there, Finn Hudson, welcome to my ship. I'm the Doctor," he reached out and scooped Finn's hand in his own, shaking it and holding on to it in a manner that might have come off as intense, but then Finn wouldn't look away from the Doctor so long as he spoke. "I understand this may take some getting used to, but concentrate now. You are on board the TARDIS, which is as I've mentioned a ship, my ship. It travels both in space and in time, and it has, for hundreds of years. I myself am over a thousand years old, so it should come as a lesser surprise then for me to point out I am not of this Earth as you and your friends are. The woman who stands behind me now, well she is human, though I venture she hasn't told you absolutely the truth of who she is. She's…" He stopped when Gemma cleared her throat. He looked back at her, to Finn again, let go of his hand, and took a step to the side. He still had plenty to learn about his 'Shimmer Girl,' and it might have been best she did those introductions herself. He wasn't even all that used to her having a name yet.

"I know it's a lot to take in," Gemma approached Finn, this boy who'd only been a story to her until she'd travelled here, and she gave him a reassuring smile.

"Am I really on a space ship?" he slowly asked, and Gemma nodded.

"My name is Gemma Lucas. I was posing as a teacher, on the Doctor's behalf. Not this one exactly," she pointed back to him. "I come from the future, not too far off into it, but enough that I haven't been born and won't be for a while, not by your time," she explained. "I've been at McKinley, all this time, so I could prepare you all for this day. I'm sorry I didn't get to do the same for you in time."

"It's… it's cool," he tried to shrug, like it was no big deal, though his voice showed the strain he was under, having to process all this information.

"So are you going to tell us now?" Puck spoke up then, and they turned to him. "What is all this for anyway? Are there going to be aliens attacking the school or something? I just got out of that place, so I don't really care either way," he shrugged and got a few glares out of the others for it, although they couldn't pretend they weren't just as curious as he was.

"It has nothing to do with your school, sorry to disappoint," Gemma tipped her head to him.

"It doesn't?" Mercedes asked. Gemma could see the Doctor had been surprised by her already. By his time, he would still be waiting on the beacon to take him back to her after she'd up and disappeared again, and maybe he still hadn't figured if the girl standing before him now was proof that he would find her again and get her home, or if her whole adventure with the time jumping cuff had yet to occur. "Then why are we all here?"

"It's all of the Glee Club though," Tina chimed in. "So it has to have something to do with McKinley, or…"

Gemma turned to the Doctor, finding him already looking her way. She knew what she was thinking, and by the looks of it, he was thinking the same thing. It was time. Gemma turned back to give a slight nod to Sugar. It took the girl a moment to understand what it meant, but once she did, she straightened up, surprised and suddenly trembling with nerves. She'd never imagined she'd get to do this, not when she'd been made to promise never to reveal her true identity, not even to her adoptive parents. But they were letting her do it, and here in the safety of the TARDIS, among friends, she felt ready. So she took a step forward.

"It's me. You're here because of me."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	4. Reintroduction

**"The Class of 2012"**

**4. Reintroduction**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Sugar had been Sugar for over a decade now. As much as she was still herself on the inside, it wasn't as though the differences between them were extensive enough to set Sugar and Padra that far apart. But as her friends heard her and turned to look at her, the seriousness about her was one they had not seen coming from her before; it got their attention.

"What do you mean it's you?" Rachel was first to speak the words on all their minds.

"There are people looking for me," Sugar went on. "They've been looking for me since I was just six years old. They found me, didn't they? I knew it was going to happen…"

She tried not to sound afraid, but she'd been living with the fear of lurking shadows from day one. In her first weeks with her new mother and father, she'd have nightmares night after night. She could see the worry in Mr. and Mrs. Motta's eyes, but she couldn't tell them the real reason for her terrors. All she'd say was she'd dreamed of monsters. It had helped her to bond with her parents.

"They haven't, not yet, but they could have, now that they're leaving," Gemma indicated the eight in the red robes. Already the statement was enough to create a handful of questions instead of answering them, but before they could even attempt to tackle those, there was still the enigma laid down by Sugar's declarations.

"Okay, back it up," Santana threw her hands up. "Look, I'm sure you're great and all, but who would be after you? Your dad get a lot of heavy competition in the piano business?"

"My father… a-and my mother, they're not… They adopted me when I was six years old."

"Wait, isn't that when you said you met…" Artie's finger trailed back to the man with the bowtie.

"Yes," Sugar briefly met his eye. She needed to get back into it; she was finding it harder to unload her story than she'd expected. "The Doctor was the one who found me where I'd been hidden… on the Great Jade Moon."

"The 'Great' Jade Moon? There's one that's not?" Brittany asked.

"Yes," Gemma spoke just as the Doctor did.

"So, what, you're an alien?" It was the first time Finn had spoken in a few minutes.

"No, I'm human, same as you. I was born in the Mercer Colony, or I will be… in 5098. Back there, my name was Padra. It's a kind of sugar," she shrugged as a way of explaining it. A few of them looked ready to ask if she was kidding, but one look at her, at the Doctor, and Gemma, and they knew she was telling the truth.

"Okay, fine, so you were from… out there. You were just a kid, why would anyone be after you?" Sam asked. Sugar grew shy again at that.

"I never really knew," she admitted. "There were people, they tried to take me away, but my mother stopped them. I have no idea why."

"I might be able to help with that one," the Doctor stepped forward, having left the girl to speak her story up until then. Sugar looked at him, surprised. "Your caretaker, when he first came to meet your family, he was ill, wasn't he?"

"He was," Sugar nodded. "They said I saved him, my blood…"

"Padra… Sugar… There is no known cure for what ailed your Toh," the Doctor shook his head. "Or rather there wasn't… until you came along. He's told you about his people, hasn't he? How all of them are born with this strain, living and dying in this way? But you could have changed all that. Someone must have found out, and that was why they chased you."

"I… I'm the cure… I would have helped them if I knew…" The memory of her giant friend had not left her, not in all the years since she'd last seen him. If she could help his people…

"He wouldn't have told you what they were like before the plague came," the Doctor gave an apologetic look. "Some might call it a blessing upon the universe that they were brought down the way they were." He didn't go on, but whether he saw it that way as well was anyone's guess.

"Can we go back to why we're all here?" Kurt asked, half raising his hand once the silence had stretched on a while.

"They don't know how to find her," Gemma told him. "From what I was told, those who are looking for her don't know much. Not her name, what she looks like… I don't think they even know whether they're looking for a boy or a girl. But they know she's travelled by TARDIS, and what little trace they still had on her couldn't be erased completely, but it could be… diluted. That's why we needed you, how you all have or will find your way at one time or another to travel with the Doctor."

"Okay…" was Rachel's hesitant response. The way she saw it, something about this didn't completely make sense, and she was partly relieved to find others had the same look she had on their faces.

"You've been protecting her," Gemma put it in words that would connect easily enough with Rachel and with the Glee Club. "This moment in time, right now, where all of you are together, as a club, has been shielding her… but it's ending. Do you still want to keep her safe?"

They looked at her, this girl who'd waltzed into the choir room at the start of the year, covered in post-food fight leftovers and giving what might have been the worst Glee Club audition they'd witnessed in a while, this girl… this girl who had somehow gone on to become their friend, despite their initial impression of her. But even if she'd still been that other girl, would it have made a difference? Would they have put less worth on her life while it was in peril?

"Of course we do," Artie wheeled forward. Acquiescing replies came from the rest, one by one, and hearing this, Sugar Motta found it hard not to feel like she might cry. She'd resolved herself to the solitude of her situation, and for that she might not have completely let herself believe her 'friends' in Glee Club were actually that, if they really cared for her. But now she knew, and if the Doctor had to choose anyone to help shield her, then she couldn't have asked for any better.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	5. What Now, Why Now

**"The Class of 2012"**

**5. What Now, Why Now**

_Inside the TARDIS_

It would take the Glee Club some time to get used to the knowledge they had just been granted, that the girl they had known for all this time as Sugar Motta was from the future, from a planet that was not Earth, and that her name was not her name. Sugar had insisted that they could still call her Sugar, and though she could see some uncertainty in their eyes, they agreed that they would do as she'd told. At the very least, they had other things to worry themselves over.

"So what do we do now?" Blaine asked.

"Now we stop it," the Doctor said matter-of-factly. It wasn't as full of an answer as they might have hoped.

"We stop 'it,'" Quinn repeated. "What's the it?"

"The it is the hunt for her," the Doctor indicated Sugar. "Whatever they intend to do with her in order to get their hands on that cure, I assure you it will mean death or constant…"

"Doctor," Gemma cut him off with a frown and a tilt of the head back to Sugar, who had quickly blanched.

"Sorry," he told her.

"It's better that we know," Sugar insisted, trying to look strong again, clearing her throat, breathing out.

"It is," the Doctor agreed before looking to the very quiet group around him. "Whoever is seeking her out, they may have much more in mind than we know now, much… much worse. We need to put an end to it." That much was more than agreed on.

"How did you know all this?" Sugar asked him, realizing. "When I was with you, you took me to go and find my parents. Did they tell you?"

"I don't believe they knew the whole of it," he shook his head. "And then…"

"And then they were killed," Sugar finished for him, shrinking. She hadn't seen either of the deaths happen; she'd slept through it all, here on the TARDIS, and then when she'd woken again, there had been the Doctor and Rose to tell her. She could still see the sadness on the blond girl's face.

At the mention of Peter and Renna, Gemma had blinked and reached inside her dress, pulling the chain from around her neck and stepping up to Sugar.

"Here… I've been waiting to give this back to you," she smiled, seeing the glimmer take to the girl's face as she recognized the pendant which had once belonged to her, a gift from her mother and father. She'd given it to the Doctor so he might prove to them she was with him, but she'd never gotten it back, not until today. She slipped it around her neck, grasping the bright sphere on the end in her palm.

"After we left you in Phoenix with your new mother and father, Rose and I went back. Not right away, but soon after," the Doctor revealed. "We meant to learn just what I told you before, the reason they were so intent on you. It wasn't just that you'd gotten away, not after they'd already forced your parents into servitude, it couldn't be."

"Who told you about it? Maybe they know more," Sugar suggested. The Doctor stepped forward.

"It was you."

"What?" Sugar stared at him, confused.

"You were the one who told me everything. Not as a child, but grown, as you are now. Though, judging by the look you're giving me now, I should say from your point of view you _will_ tell me everything."

"So you're saying… I'll get to see them again? Rose and the… the other you?"

"At some time, before I leave you again, yes," the Doctor confirmed, and Sugar's face relaxed into a smile.

How long she'd hoped to see them again, her old friends. She might not have spent all that much time with them, when held to the length of her life thus far, but they had been the ones to save her, to set her on the path of her new life. If not for them, she would have likely been found sooner or later, and if she hadn't been killed soon after, it would have been like the Doctor had said, or meant to say. They would have held her captive, drawn her blood whenever they saw fit, used her as nothing more than the means to a cure for Toh's people. They had tried to save her parents, and she never blamed them for not having succeeded. The day they'd left home, her and Toh, she'd believed she would never see them again, and she'd made herself accept it. She'd nurtured one small hope, when they'd flown off after them on the TARDIS, and it had hurt when this had been crushed as well, but she had made it through. She knew Rose and the Doctor had tried. She knew she would never have grown to be Sugar Motta if not for them, and she had always secretly wished she might see them again. And now she knew she would.

"So… I told you everything… Why didn't you come for me then?"

"Because you also said not to do that," the Doctor had been ready with the answer. "That I would have to wait until our paths crossed again, not by my choosing. 'Leave it alone,' you said. 'The time isn't right.'"

"How do we find who's looking for her, who's behind it?" Walter asked. The Doctor looked at him, turned back to Gemma, then to Walter again. Whatever was going through his mind, Gemma didn't know, and she didn't expect him to say.

"As I'm sure one person or another will have told you in your lifetime, the best place to start is from the beginning, and in this case, I am starting to understand," he looked to the faces of the Glee Club surrounding him, "That place is the Phisto Hub."

"What's that?" Tina asked.

"It's the center of a trade organisation, where one might get their hands on anything from a trance inducer, to a school, or a bloodline tracker… even an arm," his eyes had trailed from Blaine and Kurt, to Sugar, to Puck and then to Quinn. "The whole of time and space has dealt with it, and they don't come cheap. You know how they say, 'making a deal with the devil,' well… take a guess how that started."

"They're the ones who promised my father the new school," Sugar was the first to understand, and the Doctor gave her a nod. "Then let's go," she insisted, and the Doctor moved to the controls.

"We're going," he agreed, and they were off, the tremor sending the many passengers into a heap.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	6. In Flight Conversation

**"The Class of 2012"**

**6. In Flight Conversations**

_Inside the TARDIS_

As they went on their way to the Phisto Hub, the initial tremors had subsided, leaving the many occupants of the TARDIS to regroup. Gemma was looking around, to the Glee Club kids, the ones she'd led here, the ones she'd had to lie to every so often. She was still lying to most of them on some things, she knew, and those things couldn't be helped, for reasons that had nothing to do with this plan to help Sugar but had everything to do with the fact she would one day call most of these people aunt or uncle, and one of them grandmother.

"Gemma?" She looked up and smiled when she saw Walter was standing next to her.

"So… what do you think?" she asked, nodding ahead to indicate the ship.

"Well, not to insult your descriptive abilities, it's nothing like what I expected," he told her, and with no words she knew this meant the Doctor's ship had exceeded his expectations. But this wasn't what he'd come over to talk about. "Who's Rose?" he asked, and she hesitated.

"She used to travel with the Doctor," she finally explained.

"Like you do?"

"Right," Gemma confirmed. "With his previous regeneration… and the one before that. I don't know how long exactly," she admitted.

"Why did she stop?" he asked. Gemma again had to think. It wasn't as though Walter wasn't aware that being the Doctor's companion didn't come with some risks, but he'd been fairly shielded from that side of it up until now, and part of her wanted to keep it that way, but it just wouldn't have been fair, especially now that they were on the eve of leaving with her Doctor for some travels of their own.

"She got trapped, in an alternate universe. As far as anyone here knows, she's dead." He said nothing. "That's as much as I know. The Doctor doesn't talk about them too much, the old companions, but I know there have been a lot over the years." _One day we'll be gone, and he won't want to talk about us either._ After the Doctor had actually mentioned some of her former companions, it had left Gemma to think about would happen with her, what would make that she no longer travelled aboard the TARDIS. Would she decide to stop? Would she end up unable to go on? Would she die? It wasn't what she wanted to think about, but sometimes she didn't see a choice. Now that she stood here, she knew deep down the only reason the Doctor had allowed some information about them, about Rose, and Jack, and Martha, and Donna, and Amy and Rory, and Clara, was because she knew at one time or another she would see them, while she followed the kids from McKinley.

Artie could see Sugar had been keeping to herself since they'd started for the Phisto Hub. They all saw it, he expected, but no one had made any kind of move before now, so he went for it… someone had to. He couldn't blame them for being a bit put off by what they'd found out, realizing she wasn't who they thought she was, but if they felt weird, what was _she_ feeling?

"Hey…" he tipped his head to her.

"Hey," she replied, sitting up in the steps where he couldn't follow. She realized this after a few seconds, and she silently got up and climbed down to sit where they could be at eye level.

"I get it now," he said. "Why you freaked out when Puck and I started to ask about the Doctor." She let out a breath, nodded. She'd never told anyone, he could tell; she still wasn't used to anyone around her knowing her secret.

"It's all going to change," she spoke, staring at the sphere dangling from the chain around her neck. "When we get back to Lima. Not like I'll start telling everyone, but… I'll be able to tell my parents." She went quiet again, and Artie had to stare at her for a bit longer before he knew what was troubling her.

"They'll still love you." She looked at him, frowning, trying to look like this had not been exactly what she was afraid of, that they would look at her and see a freak all of a sudden.

"I know, I…" She still remembered the day she'd met them, the day she had become Sugar Motta. She remembered the looks on their faces when they'd first seen her; she was what they'd waited for, and she made them happy just for being theirs. She'd been so busy adjusting to Earth, and the past, that she couldn't see how nervous they were, too. She just thought they found her strange and didn't know how to deal with her, but looking back it was easier to understand they were just adjusting, having gone from being just the two of them to being the parents of a six-year-old girl. Sugar had done her best to let herself be loved by them, but she was still mourning her mother and father. It took more than half a year, nearer a whole one, before they'd truly bonded and become family, but once they had… "I know," she spoke again, this time with more assurance.

"Doctor?" Quinn had walked up behind him, and when he turned, she smirked. "Weren't you wearing the same thing when I saw you last time?" she pointed him up and down. He touched his bowtie.

"I have a certain… style…" he tried to brush it off.

"You have a closet with enough clothes in it to change every day for a long, long while," she countered. He was stuck. "You came to check on me, didn't you? You knew about the accident." He scratched at his head, at a loss for words. He had been on the receiving end of more than one slap or punch from companions, parents, and any number of others, and for having sent her right back into oncoming traffic, knowing what would happen to her, Quinn might have every right to follow through and do the same. But she didn't. "I'm glad you came," she smiled. He still looked at her like she might hit him, but then that made her laugh, and he breathed. "So it really just happened for you?" He pointed to a spot near where Rachel and Finn stood.

"You disappeared from there not an hour ago."

Rachel had approached Finn, seeing how he kept staring around the TARDIS. Now that his shock had started wearing off, he looked almost like a giddy kid, curious at everything new his eyes found. It almost didn't seem fair that he was adjusting faster than her. She had known the truth, or she'd known it and still needed to accept it, before they'd walked on here, and she hadn't found how she was supposed not to be at least a bit freaked out by a box that was bigger on the inside and could apparently travel in space and time.

"You okay?" she asked him, so she might appear in control of herself, the one who had known first out of the two of them. All she could hear in her head was the conversation she'd overheard, Santana and Puck and the others trying to decide who to tell first, them saying Finn would be easier to convince than she'd be. _They were right._

"Yeah," he briefly turned his head toward her but quickly returned his eyes to where they'd been exploring. She'd seen pictures of him when he was little, thanks to his mother. He'd been embarrassed, but Carole had been proud. Rachel particularly remembered the three consecutive Halloweens where he'd dressed as an astronaut. He was happy just being here, in space.

And then the ship had come to a resounding stop. When all had settled, they'd turned to the Doctor. "Here we are," he said. "The Phisto Hub."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	7. Doctor Plus One

**"The Class of 2012"**

**7. Doctor Plus One**

_Inside the TARDIS_

The Doctor had nearly made it to the TARDIS doors before he realized the whole group was making to follow him. He turned, and they stopped. His eyes swept across the lot of them, and after a beat, he stepped toward Sugar. It had been a long time since he'd last seen her, and even though on that last time she had looked exactly as she did now, the one he still remembered was the little girl, the child he had known as Padra. It didn't matter one way or the other, he would tell her the same thing he would have told her if she'd still been six.

"It would be best if you stayed here, for now," he nodded. She frowned, and he could see Renna's face, clear as though he'd seen her a moment before. Did she know how much she looked like her mother? "Until we know more, it would be better if all of you stayed inside the TARDIS actually," he told the rest of the Glee Club. There was a rise of protest, and the Doctor turned to Gemma.

"Guys, come on," she raised her voice. Real teacher or not, their instinct was still to listen to her, and they quieted down. "Until we know more about what we're stepping into, you should stay here. Once we have a better idea, you'll get to go out there. We wouldn't have brought you if all we were going to do was to leave you boxed up in here, okay?"

It was settled. Even then, Gemma had been relieved when Walter had offered himself to stay and keep an eye on the kids while she went off with the Doctor to look into the Phisto Hub. When they'd opened the doors, she had still found it hard not to smirk when she heard a chorus of gasps and words of surprise as they all got a small glimpse of what stood beyond the ship.

Gemma had seen her share of alien worlds since she'd started travelling with the Doctor, but even she was left a bit speechless. Though they stepped out on what felt like an earthen ground, into a vast encampment, with buildings, and stands, stalls and carts, but also open spaces, where nature left a trail of green. The lights were everywhere, bright against what she'd first thought to be a night sky. But soon she realized for all they knew it might have been midday. The darkness overhead was not night: it was open space.

"How…" the word slipped from her, and she felt a chill. Oh, she'd missed this, the discovery, piecing it all together. "We're breathing, we're standing," she lifted and set her foot, testing if there for release or resistance. The ground was as sound as any ground should be expected to be. And yet… and yet… "I don't see a dome. Is this a shield, or… is it like on the TARDIS, when the doors are open in space?"

"Close enough, yes," the Doctor tipped his head. "The Phisto Hub has been a constant, outside of time."

"Then they can travel in time," Gemma guessed. The Doctor scoffed.

"I travel in time, you… hop…" he gestured to her arm. "It's a wonder they have as much business as they do, the way they go," he gestured about.

"Alright, well I see that doesn't change from one regeneration to the next," Gemma frowned at him, though the twinge of a smile wasn't entirely pushed aside. "So besides the merit of their method, what is it with this place, how do they work? Your notes didn't say…"

"Notes? I left you notes?"

"A whole notebook of them," Gemma nodded.

"Excellent," the Doctor took note of this before getting into answering her. "You saw where they had Padra… Sugar's parents, yes?"

"Yes, but it wasn't like this."

"They only keep a portion of their… clients in servitude, here in the hub, but they'll put the others on worlds like the one you saw. And as a show of… gratitude… the hub grants them these slaves, for a 'modest' price."

"Great," Gemma sighed. Once she could get over the wonder of how this place looked, all that remained were chills. "So they go anywhere, anytime…"

"They have agents… poachers, more like. They go, ears to the ground, looking for potential clients, the desperate, who can do no better but sacrifice. It's all worth it, of course. That's what they tell themselves, the better to make it through one day and the next once they've given up whatever it was they had to give up. These people here, if they find a bigger take, will go and take the thing they wrenched from you and sell it on to another on the very last of resorts. They're everywhere. With Padra… Sugar… the moment I saw that mark on her, I knew who had handled the trade, but her parents, finding which outpost they'd been shipped to…"

"But they'll know here, who's after her."

"If anyone asks, I've poached you as a potential client, now let's see," they moved along what felt to Gemma very much as being a marketplace, with stalls and tents all about.

It took nearly an hour of carrying on this charade, moving about the marketplace, talking to this one or that one, attempting to suss out who might be the one they'd need to press for information. Gemma was glad that, in the position she was meant to hold, she wasn't meant to talk all that much. Instead she observed the Doctor. It was fascinating to watch him, really. She had not spent any extensive amount of time around any of the past Doctors, so the only one she really knew – and even that was potentially overdoing it – was her Doctor, the one female in the bunch. But here she was now, looking at this one, the eleventh, and she watched how he worked. He had his differences from her Doctor, but there were those inherent traits that carried over, if you knew to look for them.

In the end, their exhausting and exhaustive search had brought them to one tent, where Gemma could sense as well as the Doctor that they were on the right track. So they took a seat.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	8. Bigger on the Inside

**"The Class of 2012"**

**8. Bigger on the Inside**

_Inside the TARDIS_

They'd tried to just sit around the console, to wait calmly for the Doctor. But this proved to work about as well as placing them in front of a great big red button and telling them not to press it. Some would be diligent in their respect of those instructions, while the rest would find the temptation much, much too strong, and they would reach. So after five minutes had gone by, some of them had begun to rise, to inspect the console, muttering amongst themselves as they wondered what this did, what that was for… Even those of them who had been on the TARDIS before were left to wonder.

Walter was keeping an eye on them, as promised, but within a few more minutes, he became aware of how much the scope of how far they would wander was starting to widen. He could see Kurt, Blaine and Sam huddled together, talking, looking back toward the corridor leading off from the room they were all sitting in. And now they were joined by Santana and Brittany, and within a minute they were rising together… they were going.

"Where are you all going?" Walter called to them, and they turned to him.

"We're not going out there," Santana assured him, like it was the clearest loophole.

"The Doctor said…" Mike started to say, though he was noticing Tina looked kind of curious herself now. They have never gotten to be here before, as far as they knew.

"Relax, we've been here before, we won't get lost," Santana cut him off.

"Santana, sit down," Quinn called after her. "All of you," she stood, and where Walter had failed to make his authority accepted by them, the group of them who'd been looking to explore slowly but surely came back around, grudgingly sitting again, with whatever choice words they kept to themselves still plainly written on their faces. "Thank you," Quinn couldn't help but rub it in Santana's face, just a bit, and Santana in turn looked ready to pounce, only stopped thanks to Brittany's intervention.

They needed something to keep their minds busy, and it was Mercedes who'd taken the initiative to give them something to think about, other than the strange ship they couldn't explore, and likewise the world just past the doors. She realized it might have been a touchy subject, but all things considered, it might have been a good idea for them to be informed anyway.

"Hey, Sugar?" she asked, and the girl turned to look at her. "So what happened? When you were a kid, coming to Earth?" Sugar hesitated, reaching once more for the sphere at her neck. It was becoming an easy way for her to connect with reality.

"Yeah, what happened?" Sam jumped in.

"Well, I… My parents and I, my birth parents, we lived in this place called the Mercer Colony. It was just the three of us and Toh. He lived with us, took care of us… He was my friend. He was an alien, very tall, and very strong. He used to take me on his shoulders and run, run, run, so fast…" she smiled at the memory, though it faded when she had to remind herself he was gone, like everyone else she'd known. "My father worked at the school, but it was destroyed. They couldn't rebuild it, I don't…" she shook her head. There were so many things she didn't remember entirely, and she knew it was to be expected, being that she was so young, but she still felt like all it meant was that she didn't have a full picture of her first life. "Then these people came, and they wanted to give us our new school. I thought my father would be happy, but he wasn't. I didn't know why until one day the people came, and they wanted to take me away." Her hand drifted over her shoulder, to the faded mark on her back. "But my parents helped me escape with Toh. We were on the run for almost a month before he… he was killed. But then the Doctor and Rose found me, and they tried to get my parents back. They were made into slaves because without me the deal fell through. After they died, he had to find a place for me, and that's when he brought me to Earth, in this time, or… ten years ago at least. I was introduced to my new parents, and I've been here ever since. It was all so strange to me at first, which made that the other kids thought I was weird, and that just stuck," she shrugged, inadvertently making each one of them feel bad for ever having made fun of her. Those nearer to her reached out and tapped her shoulder, or gave her hand a squeeze, and she gave them silent thanks.

Walter was distracted after Sugar had brought up Rose. Even after Gemma had explained to him who she was, or maybe because she had explained it, he was thinking more and more about the fact that he was about to take up a similar position, following both Gemma and the Doctor on this time travelling space ship. If it hadn't been that the Doctor was off with her at the moment, he might have been right there with those of the group who meant to explore the TARDIS. This place would be, for all intents and purposes, his home for the near foreseeable future.

It was all really happening. He wasn't under some sort of delusion that it wasn't real. When his first exposure had come out of the fact that Gemma had accidentally transported them both to another world, in another time, he didn't have much space to argue. But it was one thing to think about it as an eventuality and then all of a sudden have it become reality. He had said his goodbyes to his family back home, who'd wished him luck on his 'world travels,' but it wasn't until now that he understood he wouldn't see them for a while. Now he wondered what would happen to them if somehow something happened to him and he never got to go home again. And just as fast, he thought of Gemma, and when it came right down to it, he couldn't choose the safe option, to stay home, if it meant losing her.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	9. Seeking, Sought

**"The Class of 2012"**

**9. Seeking, Sought**

_The Phisto Hub_

The man they had come to call on was called Teller Fink. From the Doctor, Gemma had been brought up to speed with any terminology she might need to know, while dealing with people of the Phisto Hub. Tellers were fairly low on the roster when it came to authority, but for anyone looking for information, they were as near to the top as one might hope to find. They were something halfway between a steward and a tour guide. It was their job to ensure the potential clients brought here had a pleasant experience, by any means necessary, so that they might be convinced to go through with whatever deal those above them were in the process of putting before them.

Coming to the Phisto Hub and finding people who would know what they needed to know was complicated even before they stepped off the ship and started searching. It was in the place's nature that coming upon any given time in the hub's history, which had no years in any way that the humans would understand, was near to impossible. It was their luck then that the Doctor specialized in near to impossibility… and that they had Sugar and the others among them. If they had put a trace on the girl, then it could be followed both ways.

But now they had Teller Fink. The man was not in his prime, that much could be seen easily enough. Yes, his hair had gone gray, but it was the unruliness of it that told on his character. Fink had done his best to make the gray mess presentable, they could tell, but this had not been accomplished with any amount of success. In equal measure, his clothes showed their years of wear, of gentle care, yes, but of inevitable wear and tear as well. He was a nervous man, thinly disguised as one who had everything in control.

"Listen here, Teller," the Doctor got up in his face, which was easy, seeing as he was a good head taller than the gray man, "I've brought Miss Harrison along on the good promise that we might be able to grant her the ability to cure a terrible ailment which has fallen on the children of her people. All I ask of you is to reassure her we have dealt in such things before, with notable success."

"O-Of course, yes," the man told the Doctor, who tipped his head to indicate Fink should be saying these things to Gemma. Fink blinked, then turned to her. "Please, won't you sit," he guided them to a small triangle-shaped table, surrounded by three seats. Two of them were stools, but the third, where Fink invited Gemma to sit, was a chair with a back, easily the most comfortable thing in this place: the client would always have the seat of honor, while tellers and sellers took all that remained. The table's form spoke volumes as well. Each of its occupants found himself or herself the center of attention, with two others honed in on them, with whatever need or task they carried, be it to attain, to sell, or to facilitate.

"It's been such a nightmare," Gemma instantly wept, tipping her head not so she might hide a lack of tears – she could thank her grandmother for teaching her how to bring them forth on demand – but so to further sell the story, letting the teller scramble to pass her a tissue to dry her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered. "I was a teacher, you see, but the last of my charges were taken to quarantine only a week ago. We've buried half of them, and we'll bury them all before this is done, unless… unless… Oh, please, mister, if there's anything I can do…" Her sobbing increased, and the Doctor could barely keep himself minded, between playing into her story and being utterly impressed by her performance.

"Cures, yes… We deal in cures, naturally," Fink told her. "There is nothing we can't provide, nothing at all." The Doctor had been certain they'd been doing well, and if it had been up to him, he might even have been fooled by her, if only at first. But he had underestimated one thing in Fink and it was the speed with which suspicion could take root in him. It wasn't that Fink didn't know his face, he knew, the sellers came from such varied times that at any time they could expect meeting a seller for the first time when they had been on the job for years already. And Gemma… Gemma was flawless as the weary schoolteacher. So what was it? Were they so alert on the matter of the plague cure they were attempting to wrench from Padra… Sugar? Whatever it was, something in the man's voice told the Doctor they were not doing nearly as well as he would have hoped. If anything, they might have been in trouble.

"Do you see then, Ginny? Nothing to worry about," he told her. She looked at him. They'd agreed he would only call her by her true first name if he felt it was safe. So for him to press on to using her fake name was all the signal she needed: they had to be cautious.

"Where did you say this awful, awful sickness took place?" Fink asked Gemma, who was all ready to invent her story until her ear twitched, catching on to distinctively sounded like a bolt turning heavily. They were locked in.

"I didn't," she frowned. "It's…"

"Bexen," the Doctor cut in. "Bexen Arbor," he told Fink. "Let me ask you this, Teller Fink: have you got children?" The man only stared. "No, I didn't think so. Had you had children, you might find yourself more sympathetic to Miss Harrison's predicament. Instead, here you are, treating her as though she were…"

"Seller, what is your base license?" Fink asked the Doctor, who stopped, turning to Gemma, who tried to hide her cluelessness, then back to Fink. He sunk his hand in his pocket, pulling out his psychic paper and presenting it.

"Here."

"There's nothing there," Fink sat back.

"No… No, I'm afraid there isn't," the Doctor breathed, putting it back in his pocket. "Well, I do believe I've misplaced it. I'll just go ahead and…"

There was a sudden thudding against the door, like someone had attempted to open it in haste and found themselves locked out. The sound repeated, followed by a few seconds of silence. Then it was ripped from its spot, hinges and lock together. Gemma rose and fell in at the Doctor's side, ready to run or surrender as need be – she'd much rather run.

When the dust settled, there were three people stood in the hole where Fink's door had just stood. The teller for his part had stumbled to the ground when he'd tried to take cover. The man and woman were partially obscured by the glare of the lights outside for a moment, but the third of them was seen immediately, for having stood before the others; his height, or lack thereof, had helped.

"Trouble again, Doctor?"

"Dex?" the Doctor straightened up. He may have looked like a long-haired ten-year-old boy, but the short one was centuries old and a long-time friend. Only hours ago they had been trapped together in the circus where Quinn Fabray had found herself transported. "What are you doing here?"

"There's time enough to explain, what do you say we relocate?" the tall man behind Dex spoke, and now the Doctor recognized Noah Puckerman's descendant.

"Jaime?" And the girl… She'd only been a child the last time he'd seen her, but he knew her as young Padra's Mercer friend almost immediately. "And Nira… How…"

"Now, Doctor!" She looked to be only a few years older than Sugar and the rest of the McKinley group. They didn't have to be told again. The Doctor and Gemma left the baffled Fink scrambling to stand, and they followed the trio. They ran, the five of them, and it was the unlikely trio who led the way, until they landed at the door to a broken down stall and slipped inside… skidding to a stop before they could collide into any of the more than a dozen of them packed inside. Gemma knew she recognized them all, from one place or another, trailing after the Glee Club as they travelled in turn with the Doctor, but there were two she spotted, and after that she couldn't be minded to look at the others.

Before she could choke out their names, her mother and father had their arms around her.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	10. With a Little Help

**"The Class of 2012"**

**10. With a Little Help**

_Inside the 12__th__ Doctor's TARDIS – Not long ago…_

It had been years since Sophie Perry had set foot aboard the ship inside the blue box, but when the Doctor had led her and Julian to follow her there, time felt as though it slipped off of her, and she was that young expectant mother all over again, and she remembered sitting, just there on that seat, attempting and failing for patience.

"What are you doing, are you taking us to her?" Sophie asked, turning to her husband, who was presently too busy taking in his surroundings.

"Eventually, yes. But first there are a few other places we need to go, people to see and all…

X

_Chicago, Illinois – in the year 2037_

Gillian Moran Fiorentino was just walking out of the studio after another night of filming. Her association not only with the station but with Trinity Wells, who had gotten her on board to create art segments for the news, had been one of the best turns in her life for the past sixteen years. It was there that she'd done the work she was proudest of, and also where she met her future wife. Today they were the proud parents of two little boys. She did not miss the museum at all, and she hadn't thought about all that had happened there in a long time… until she spotted the blue box across the parking lot.

X

_Coreidis, in the year 2020_

It had taken a year, but today might have been the first day where Della looked around at her family, her friends, all the people of their area, and decided the bad times they'd lived through the year before were finally behind them. The people of Coreidis were once again in control of their own minds, and the divide that had fallen over them had been stitched and closed. Today, they would hardly know it had been there at all, save for the monument standing near the factory.

"Della, he's back!" She looked up at her brother's call, seeing Corius jog toward her. "Come on, he's here, the Doctor's ship!"

X

_Aren, in the year 2017_

Looking at her, no one would have guessed the horrors she had once lived through. Today was Brin's thirteenth birthday, but when she had been eleven, she had been a student at the prestigious Isher Academy on Mesiary, and there she had been tricked and used as part of a covert plan to train the child musical prodigies and turn them into brainwashed assassins. They had made her kill, and nearly killed her in return. She would have been dead, if not for the Doctor, and Donna, and Blaine. She didn't remember them anymore, nor did she remember any of the things she'd done. It had been the Doctor's final gift, before she and the other two survivors of the experiment had been returned home. He had taken their memories of the entire ordeal.

So when Brin had come out of her room, in the new dress she'd been given for her birthday, and she'd come face to face with the blue box, it meant no more to her than a surprise, especially when the doors opened and a woman greeted her with a smile.

X

_Earth, in the year 4550_

Savelyn had been very patient. Not until she had turned nineteen years old, and until she had passed the entrance exams, could she finally enlist in the piloting program. She would wear the uniform her father had proudly worn through most of his career. There were plenty of things she knew both he and her mother had kept from her still, though as she'd grown they had started to feel more at ease revealing it all to her. She knew she had been there the day Mercedes Jones had made her final jump, when the cuff had released from her wrist, and she had seen the Doctor, too. But she'd been three years old at the time, so some days, unless she reminded herself that it had truly happened, she could feel as though it had been a dream, or a story.

That was until she'd woken up one morning, gotten her uniform on, stepped out of her house… and come to find the old blue ship waiting for her.

X

_Sometime in New New York_

It had taken days before Agnes and Alfred Brannigan had completely reverted to normal. Normal, in their case, was to once again have their feline features, and all associated traits. Those had been taken from them by the experiments of Dr. Benedict, after he'd kidnapped them and Brittany. But then they had been saved, and in the end the Doctor had managed to help the fourteen-year-old children of old friends Brannigan and Valerie be just as they had been in the beginning.

Agnes and Alfred, even more than their other four siblings, were finding that even though the ordeal was over at last, their parents, their mother in particular, were finding it hard not to be especially protective of them. This had made so that the pair of them spent more time just the two of them together, which made that when they saw the TARDIS appear, it was only them there who saw it.

X

_London, in the year 1894_

Three days after the Doctor had returned them to their home and their time, Strax had gone off on what he liked to call an expedition, and Vastra and Jenny had let him. This allowed them some peaceful time, just the two of them, without him coming along at the most inopportune time. He had only been gone for a few hours when they heard a noise from downstairs however, and if it had not been for the fact it was a very familiar noise, it might have been the Doctor would have been met with unfortunate swords. As it was, the couple made their way down to meet the Time Lady, and there were met with a request. The Doctor asked Jenny, and only Jenny, to join her at this time.

Vastra had been just on the edge of vexed until the Doctor explained the circumstances why she wasn't meant to come and, finally, reluctantly, she saw Jenny off and wished her well.

X

_Earth, in the year 3088_

Jaime Grant was getting his life together. He had been released from Orcus Penitentiary, after nearly getting wiped out from existence by Warden Nash, he had a job, a good, proper, honest job, and he'd just met a girl he felt he might actually be falling in love with. Putting everything that had happened at Orcus behind him had not been nearly as easy as he would have liked it to be, but two years later there he was, and he felt good.

When he overheard one of his clients mention some strange blue box sitting in the way, preventing him from accessing his vehicle, Jaime had made it a point to look into it for him. He wasn't sure who to expect, but maybe his old friend Jack Harkness was finally paying him a visit again. He hadn't seen him since Orcus.

But it wasn't Jack who stepped off the ship; it wasn't even a man… but it was no stranger either.

X

_The Eastern Shores of Mesphoria, in the year 2049_

In the years since the break in the conduits had threatened both their waters and their entire way of life, the Mesphorite had grown not only to be returned their underwater privileges, but also not to take those privileges for granted. That was one very important lesson Rada would make sure and teach her young charges as she taught them to swim, and to master both the leg binding and the extended lung capacity. She was seeing through one of her groups through the last of their exercises when she looked over her shoulder… and she saw it.

She'd been the one to spot the strange blue thing up on the hill the last time. She'd only been fourteen years old at the time, sixteen years prior, but ever since then, every so often, she would catch herself looking, wondering if it ever would come again. It never did, of course, but on this day…

X

_The Mercer Colony, in the year 5119_

Sometimes she would look through the window from her house, to their nearest neighbor's house, and she would feel… sadness, or anger, or grief, or frustration… Once upon a time, Nira had had a best friend. Her name was Padra, and because of something Nira herself didn't entirely understand until years later, she had been taken away. People wanted to hurt Padra, and so she'd had to go away. She'd come back only once, with the people from the blue box, and then… She still remembered the day she'd watched her mother die. Nira had just barely escaped with her life, screaming when someone had scooped her up, only to realize it was her father. He'd been wounded, so much so that once it was all over and they'd been treated, he'd nearly died. But he'd survived, and though they tried to put all that had happened behind them, she couldn't do it.

That had been when she was little. But Nira was twenty-one years old now, and she had no intention of letting things happen anymore, not to her family, her friends… She didn't know if her best friend was even alive anymore, but she chose to believe that she was, because she needed her to be. She was going to find a way, she would figure out…

Just there, in between the two houses, before her very eyes, it had appeared. The blue box… like when she was six years old… Maybe it wasn't so impossible.

X

_Boston, Massachusetts – in the year 1911_

He had tried being back on his own world. Over the centuries, he had gone back many times, but always he found what he really wanted was to be elsewhere. So it should have come to no surprise to anyone that Dex found himself back on Earth sooner or later. Even after his last trip had ended in years of captivity, he had chosen to return. This time, he would be more careful, wouldn't be snatched up because of his size and human-childish appearance. He kept a man in his hire, to keep an eye on things, and to pose as his widowed father, the better not to get shipped off to the nearest orphanage they could find.

He would have been happy to go about his life and do as he pleased, but then living on Earth, the way he looked, had its restrictions, and at his age, he had long learned to deal with them. Sooner or later, especially after what he'd been through before, he found he couldn't just sit and do nothing. Instead, he chose to use his stature to help those who were in fact the age most humans took him for.

That was how it came to be that he was running. He had only just 'relieved' a rude man of his hat, his walking stick, and the money he'd only just stuffed in his pocket. He had the police on his tail, but he didn't worry. He was faster, and his 'father' would distract them. Still, he ran. He went on running, so driven that he didn't realize he had run right into the open-doored TARDIS until he trapped on the ramp and fell face first to the ground. When he looked up, he just managed to see where he was before he spotted the group of strangers staring back down at him.

"Hello, Dex," a woman appeared swimming overhead, and it only took a moment for him to recognize…

"Time Lord?"

"Lady," she tipped her head. Dex scrambled to his feet, slipping the rude man's hat over his head, his shoulder-length rusty hair framing his pale face.

"Yes, you are," he was halfway between impressed and disturbed. "Don't doubt I'll want to know how this happened later, but for now… What am I doing here?"

"I need your help," the Doctor told him. "That goes for all of you," she looked up to the lot of them gathered around the console. "Some friends of yours will need you, and my past self as well."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	11. Take Two

**"The Class of 2012"**

**11. Take Two**

_The Phisto Hub_

There had been no question of whether or not Gemma would come with them for this. The Doctor only had to see her, standing and talking with her parents, to know she wasn't ready to be away from them again just yet, not when she'd only gotten them back. He didn't know the whole of her story at McKinley, but he knew it had been months since she'd been able to see or talk to them.

So instead he went back out, with Dex, and with Jaime, and Nira, and Della and Corius, and just in hopes that it might 'convince' Teller Fink to speak, he brought Rada. True to her Mesphorite origins, the woman was a good three feet taller than the tallest of them. She was also sea green. Upon learning that she'd eventually come to see Sam here, but that he would be a teen, who had yet to meet her, she'd been concerned about how it would be too hard for him not to remember a nine-foot-tall green person, the Doctor, the 12th, had equipped her with a modified dedicated shield, a gift from the contingent in Indiana. Thanks to this, Rada was made to look human to any other humans, a normal, golden-skinned giant of a woman. At best, the shield was able to have her perceived somewhere about seven and a half feet tall, but it was an improvement.

They swept into Teller Fink's doorway – still without its door – and this time the Doctor had absolutely no doubt they had his attention. The man saw them there, the giant girl, and the small boy he was all but certain had been the one to rip his door away, all of them… and he stumbled cowering to the ground behind his triangular table.

"Whoever you are, I don't care!" he called to the Doctor. "I've done nothing, I'm only a teller!"

"You will answer him," Dex commanded firmly, and Fink waved a jittery hand.

"Yes, fine, alright, alright," he gave up, sitting heavily on the ground. "What do you want?"

"You know why I'm here, you saw right through me before, didn't you?" the Doctor stepped forward, and Fink looked up at him. He knew whoever this stranger in a bowtie was, he could either leave him unharmed, or he could follow through on the threat he presented with those who surrounded him. All depended on if he was given reason to go either way.

"The cure, the child, yes, yes," Fink bowed his head.

"There are people out there looking for this child. Hunters, and I have it on good authority the Judoon have been put on the case as well."

"So I've heard, yes," Fink went on being cooperative.

"All this for one child?" the Doctor asked. Teller Fink tried not to let his face say more than he meant to, but the Doctor was not letting him escape into a single blink, and he knew: it wasn't just her.

"There… There's a buyer, a potential… buyer," Fink was forced to admit.

"Yes, go on," the Doctor told him. "They want the cure."

"No," Fink shook his head. "They want the plague. The cure is what they're willing to pay for it."

"A plague for a cure?" the Doctor stepped forward, and Fink all but skittered away as he nodded. "How do we find them?"

The gray man stared at them for a few seconds; he was particularly unnerved by Rada, so much so that the Doctor wondered if he could see past the shield the way he could see through the psychic paper. Finally though, he stood up, slowly, so not to startle any of them into hurting him, before moving to sit at his stool on the other side of the triangular table. He pressed his fingers underneath the table, and then it split, just along the edge, so that he could lift a panel. Inside the table's hidden compartment, he reached with his free hand and pulled out a small block. It appeared to be made of wood on first inspection, but as he turned it and handed it to the Doctor, it was closer to metal. There was a triangle emblem engraved on it, symbolic of the Phisto Hub.

"Coordinates?" Dex asked him, and he nodded. "How do we even get there?" he asked, in a voice the Doctor recognized as his play acting his childlike appearance. Teller Fink looked like he wanted nothing more than to get them out of there, so he shut the table again and moved to another cabinet, where he extracted a box, looked into it, then reached for a few more identical objects and stuck them into the box, which he brought and gave to the Doctor as well.

"Transport, you're all set, now go, I beg you," he toned down his sudden boldness.

"No need to," the Doctor tipped his head, and his silent escorts followed him out.

They went to find Gemma and the others before going on their way back to the TARDIS. As they went, the Doctor retold all that had happened to Gemma. When she asked after the box, he explained Teller Fink had been 'so kind as to assist' by providing them with the hub's mode of transport, as they'd discussed earlier.

"We need to go to Toh's planet, the plague world," he told her.

"All of us?" she asked.

"No, not all. We'll need to split up. Might not be a bad idea," he looked over his shoulder. Already the TARDIS had held him, Gemma, Walter, and the fourteen members of McKinley High's New Direction. Now they were returning and bringing fourteen assorted friends and family members. Thirty-one altogether… it wouldn't do. A split in half was already a start. "It will get crowded…"

"Afraid your ship will look like a clown car, with all of us piling into that police box, Doctor?" Gemma teased. He couldn't even bring himself to argue with that. She looked so entirely happy, having her family back. So instead, he addressed the more important issue at hand. Some of the people behind them were going to have to know that the people they'd recognize in there would not recognize them back.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	12. A Loaded Ship

**"The Class of 2012"**

**12. A Loaded Ship**

_Inside the TARDIS_

From the beginning Gemma had known she didn't do well with being away from her family for very long. The Doctor had always understood that, and she'd made sure to take her back to them every so often. Now she knew maybe it had something to do with how they had all first met, but even then… Finally, she'd been reunited with them, and it wasn't like when she'd gone to the theater, on the day which would be her birthday. Those versions of Sophie Perry and Julian Lucas had not known her, but the ones she found at the Phisto Hub that day, those were the parents who had raised her, and to see that knowledge, that shared love and experience, had touched her more than she could say.

They'd spoken, briefly, in the time where they'd waited for the Doctor and the others who'd gone to talk to Teller Fink again to return. All she'd been able to address thus far was that while they had seen her a month ago, as far as they knew, she had not seen them or her sister for roughly seven months. She told them that, in that time, she had been made to pose as a teacher, at William McKinley High School, in Lima, Ohio, from late 2011 to mid 2012. Immediately her mother had known what this meant, who she had seen and spent time with. When Gemma had gone on to explain that the whole of the Glee Club was over in the TARDIS, waiting for them, she had also pointed out how each of the people that had gone with the Doctor, and those still with them now, had met or would meet some of them, from when they had travelled with the Doctor.

In all the situating and explaining, it had taken until they were just a minute away from entering the TARDIS before Gemma remembered to tell them that, while she was posing as a teacher at McKinley, she'd met someone, who lived one floor above her at the building where she'd stayed, and that in the past few months they had started to date, which meant they were about to meet her boyfriend. She tried very hard not to smile at the thought of Walter realizing what was about to happen; he had absolutely no idea.

It was no doubt for the best that all of them outside the TARDIS understood where they stood as far as those inside. They knew if their person would or wouldn't recognize them, and they knew that if the person wouldn't, because they hadn't met them yet, then they shouldn't force it, and they shouldn't go telling them about what hadn't happened yet. In the end, Gemma pointed out it might be best not to spring the large group on them without warning.

She'd entered the TARDIS first, alone, and there found the telltale signs of utter boredom, which were rapidly shattered by her arrival. They wanted to know what they'd learned, and perhaps more importantly, where the Doctor had gone. Rather than to answer those questions, Gemma had asked if Walter, Rachel, Finn, Sam, Tina, Mike, Blaine, and Kurt could follow her, the better to give the Doctor some space. They weren't so innocent as to not realize what connected their group, and what differentiated them from the rest, who didn't have to go with her, but thankfully they didn't feel the need to question it.

The others had only just seen the first group disappear down the hall a few seconds before, envying them that they were going to see more of the ship, when the TARDIS door opened again, and they turned to see the Doctor rejoin them… with company. Maybe because of how many of them there were, and maybe because it would have been absolutely unimaginable that it should be anyone they knew, it took a few seconds before any one of them was able to both speak and realize these weren't all strangers.

"Jaime?" Puck was the first to step forward, recognizing his descendant. Jaime looked at him, and for having last seen him as a boy of fourteen or fifteen years, the young man before him was a surprise, but a welcome one. He came forward, clapped Puck's shoulder with familial pride.

"It's good to see you again," he spoke sincerely.

"Artie, is that you?" Jenny saw the boy in the wheelchair, at least twice the age and size he'd been when she'd met him. "It is!" she came toward him, and she found a way to hug him and not bowl him over.

"Where are the others?" he asked her.

"Couldn't come," she said, then in a whisper. "The Doctor, the lady one, she said because this one hadn't met us yet, it might be easier," she quickly explained.

"Santana, look!" Brittany tapped her arm just as the Brannigan siblings were making their way to them. "You're normal again!" she declared, pulling both Agnes and Alfred into her arms.

"You're… older…" Alfred stared at them both, and Santana all but slapped him upside the head.

"Easy there, Cat Boy," she warned, but then smiled and hugged him and his sister, too.

"So we meet again," Dex sidled up to Quinn.

"Hello, Dex," she beamed. She wouldn't say this to him, knowing it would only encourage him, but she was almost glad to be treated to his advances again; she'd missed the boyish man. "Keeping out of trouble?"

"Why would I do that?" he frowned.

"No way…" Mercedes gasped when she saw the woman who was coming toward her. She'd been no more than a toddler the last time she'd seen her, but with the same cherry red hair and her mother's smile, it could only be her. "Savelyn?" She had been named in loving memory of her aunt, who had passed before she was born. The first Savelyn had been one of those few who had been good to her in the very beginning of her strange adventure, and Mercedes hadn't forgotten.

"I never thought I'd see you again, Mercedes Jones," Savelyn beamed. "I'm glad I was wrong."

"Right, all of you here, come with me," the Doctor pointed in the direction of those still standing near the doors, and they followed.

Sugar had watched the others be reunited with people they knew, one by one, and soon all of them had someone. She didn't imagine there'd be someone for her there, not with how she'd ended up mixed up in all of this, the Doctor, and the TARDIS, and…

"Padra?"

She froze. In fact, the small clusters of conversation seemed to die away, too, at the sound of the name. They looked up, same as she did, but only she stared at the girl with the tearful gaze she had. It had been years, but she knew that face, and with it came a name, the one of her best friend, long lost to her, like everything about her old life… until now.

"Nira?" she asked, her throat dry. When the girl nodded, with tears of her own, Sugar moved to her, and the two both threw their arms around one another, holding tight, ensuring once and for all that they were real, not the deceiving stuff of dreams. "You're alive, you're… you're here… I've missed you, I…" It was as much as she could say before she choked up. It had been one thing to get Gemma at McKinley, to remember they'd met before, a first link back to who she'd been, the only one she'd had since her arrival on Earth, but it was another to have Nira here with her, Nira who'd been her friend, who'd grown up with her, shared memories with her. They were Mercer girls, the pair of them, and it meant more to Sugar than almost anything she'd experienced in all her years as the Earth girl.

Further into the TARDIS, Gemma had escorted in the group who had yet to experience their solo trips with the Doctor, and for that had no idea who anyone else was. So when the Doctor arrived, he played to that knowledge as best he could.

"These are some friends who've come along to help us," he explained. "This is going to be quite the undertaking, no sense in going at it alone. Teamwork… yes," he nodded, and Gemma cleared her throat so he'd get back on track. "Allow me to introduce Della and Corius, brother and sister from Coreidis," he pointed them out. Of course Kurt was aware of this, and the Doctor knew that he knew, but in the interest of keeping the secret for Blaine, they all had to play along. "Here's Rada," he pointed to the tall woman, who had easily drawn their attention. "And this is…"

"Jill," Gillian Moran Fiorentino cut him off. If they weren't meant to know her, then she'd do what she could to keep it that way. She looked older, different, and as hoped, neither Mike nor Tina realized would remember her in nine years' time.

"Jill, yes," the Doctor nodded. "And over here is Brin," he gave the girl a smile. Her predicament was a tricky one. He didn't the circumstances of her arrival here, not exactly, but he was almost sure, by looking at her, that she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing there, or who any of them were. That was normal. But then there was something in that same look that showed what he could only say might have been an understanding. She didn't know who they all were, but she knew she could trust them. She couldn't even know she had met Blaine once before, because he hadn't met her yet in this time. "And these…" he turned to the last two.

"Sophie and Julian… Harrison," she gave a slight head tilt, so they'd understand. "My parents," she smiled. The pair were strangers to them all the same, but somehow knowing who they were to Gemma made them important in their own rights, and they all smiled and nodded, waved, or said hello. Gemma turned to look at Walter, who looked like he'd had whiplash all at once. "This is Walter, my boyfriend," she told her parents before moving to indicate the rest. "This is Kurt, and Blaine, Sam, Tina, and Mike, and Finn, and Rachel." Gemma knew her mother found it near impossible not to go on staring at her own young mother once she'd found her standing there, but she did her very best.

"I believe you can all come back now," the Doctor told them. "We'll be ready to talk."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	13. Teaming Up

**"The Class of 2012"**

**13. Teaming Up**

_Inside the TARDIS_

It had taken exactly six minutes of utter cacophony, of the thirty-one of them gathered around the circular room, talking over one another, accidentally knocking into one another and talking even more, and the Doctor starting to speak only to realize no one either heard him or listened to him, before Gemma convinced him to relocate. One long walking row snaking through the TARDIS hallways later, they had ended up in a room even Gemma had never stepped into before. It reminded her of one of her old music classes, with its acoustically minded ceilings and walls. It was big, which was its greatest asset, and when the Doctor spoke, calling them to attention, his voice carried, and he was finally given ears to listen to him.

"Here we are then, yes," he clapped his hands together, packing about, and Gemma was certain she had never met any incarnation of the Doctor who was so prolific with his hand gestures whilst speaking. "As you will know, regardless of who told you about it, either me or… me," he frowned, looking to those his future self had dropped on him. "We are landed at the Phisto Hub, the vastest trading center in the known universe and the unknown. We are here, at the heart of it all, for one girl, for Padra," he turned to her, and she seemed to shrink inward.

"I go by Sugar now," she briefly told the newcomers.

"You have been brought here, all of you," he gestured to indicate now he meant not only Twelve's group, but his own as well, "You have been brought here to help her, that is the heart of the matter, yes, but the heart would have itself a poor time of being the heart of anything if it was on its own, wouldn't it? It starts with her, but it becomes much, much larger, when given the chance. There is a world out there, a planet inhabited by a race once known as a scourge, great big spacefaring bullies they were, yes. But for some time now, generations enough that not one among them was born healthy that remains to live today, they have been brought to suffering, by an illness, a plague. Years upon years, effort upon effort, none have yielded a single hint of a cure. That was until one of their own found his way off the planet, and landed on another, a colony, where Padra lived with her family, and her mother was able to treat this man, with the child's blood. There stands the answer to their troubles, a human girl. A cure."

Sugar wanted nothing more than for them to get beyond the part where everyone was looking at her.

"This information had the misfortune of reaching this place, the Phisto Hub, and they attempted to get their hands on her, have been trying, might have succeeded, too, if not that she was hidden, on Earth, and that Gemma here," he indicated his companion, "She was able to disperse what little way they had to track her down." The way he spoke, Gemma knew he was still either confused or amused by the fact he finally knew her name, and she wasn't flitting about, appearing and disappearing on him anymore; it was hard not to smirk. "But it was all a stopgap. No one should have to spend their life hiding, to give away the whole of their identity over because it's the only way to safeguard their life. There is that bigger problem, too, that which she is the heart of, and it needs dealing with as well. There is so very much value in a cure… but there is value in the thing it cures, too. If we mean to put this all to rest, we will need to see all sides of it. That's why we need to split up."

"Split up?" Jenny repeated.

"Half will remain here. The hub alone may hold secrets to uncover, and there is the matter of a potential buyer," he presented the key card Fink had given him.

"You said the half will go. Where are you going?" Quinn asked.

"Tregh," he replied, and while the majority of them wondered if he was sneezing or stammering, Sugar's eyes went wide.

"That's Toh's world, that's… But what about the plague?"

"I'll be alright, as will you, if you choose to follow," he promised her, and the others, too. "In your case I would highly recommend you do," he gave her a look. He wasn't letting her out of his sight or the span of his protection.

"Okay," she slowly replied.

"Then I'm going, too," Nira piped in, and Sugar smiled at her like every time she looked at her it was as though she was remembering all over again that she was there.

"Good, who else?" the Doctor looked to Gemma. She knew the answer to that, always had.

"I'll go, so that'll be a safe bet those three will be coming, too," she pointed over her shoulders, to Walter and her parents. She turned to her young grandmother. "How about it, Rachel?"

"Me?" she blinked. "Why me?"

"Why not?" Gemma countered, then with a small shrug, "It'll make a nice story to tell the grandkids someday, won't it?" Rachel didn't seem too sure whether or not that was a solid enough reason, but she wasn't declining either. Gemma knew her enough to find a way under her skin, especially at this young age.

"Then I'm going, too," Finn spoke up.

"Actually, it might be best if you stayed with the second group," Gemma told him. "They'll need someone like you," she was quick to smoothly add this in, and though there was hesitation there as well, he eventually relented. He still recognized her as an authority figure, in an unfamiliar setting at that, and it worked in all of their favors.

They would soon have seven more joined to their ranks. First Mercedes and Savelyn had chosen to go, and then Kurt, which had gotten them Corius and Della, and then Blaine. When he had declared himself for the Tregh group, the Doctor had been about to invite the rest to head out when Brin stepped forward. She wanted to go with them. The Doctor looked at her, and he knew somewhere in her head, there was a part of her that felt she should stay with the boy, even if she didn't know why.

This made fifteen headed off on the TARDIS, and sixteen saying their goodbyes to them before stepping down on the Phisto Hub. Finn was joined by Quinn, Artie, Sam, Santana, Brittany, Mike, Tina, and Puck, along with Dex, Jenny, Rada, Agnes, Alfred, 'Jill,' and Jaime. The TARDIS doors opened, and they stepped down on this strange new ground, with the stars above them in a way that felt much, much too close, but oh so incredible.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	14. Have You Seen

**"The Class of 2012"**

**14. Have You Seen**

_The Phisto Hub_

Teller Fink had known the day would come where he might need to make a run from the hub. He had been raised into the position of Teller after years of working his way up, he had seen how this place worked. Some would say he had taken the coward's way there, but he saw no shame in that. It made him careful, made him know when to bow out. And after what he'd just done, that time was now. He wasn't so foolish to think it wouldn't swiftly find its way back to the higher ups, just as he wasn't foolish to think their response would be just as prompt, and brutal. It was high time he moved on, left the hub behind and found a sunny place to live out the rest of his days. He was getting too old for confrontations.

He was also getting too old to deal with the ruin of his old door, which still lay on the ground. He'd had to go and fetch two of the Contracts, the men and women willed into service by the deals of others, and by their own deals, should their agreements ever be violated. Those who found themselves sent to the Phisto Hub to work through their sentence were said to be those of greatest value, or of greatest transgression.

He had considered leaving the door as it was, to pack his bags and make a break for it, so they might be left to believe something terrible had befallen him, and he'd been snatched away, never to be found again. But he had his own pride to think about, and that pride refused to leave his place, the one he'd worked so hard to get, in any other condition but absolutely pristine. So he hurried to leave everything else as he wanted it left, while the two Contracts picked up and replaced the door where it belonged. The young woman had only the one arm, but she was stronger than she looked, stronger than the man who was assisting her; he couldn't have been very much younger than Fink himself, but then his term was a lifelong one, and it was within the Teller's duty to treat him as such.

"It won't go, Teller," the girl had startled him, coming up to him. "The structure was compromised, the entire…" Fink held up his hand to silence her, and she immediately straightened up and bowed her head, her sole hand folded against herself, where it might have been with the second if she still had it.

"Then get tools and see to it," Fink frowned. "What's your name again?" he asked, coming up short. She slowly looked back up. One of her eyes was clear blue and perfectly natural, but the other was violet, so bright and evidently artificial that they could see its hues from afar.

"You haven't asked it, Teller. And… Constance," she informed him, tipping her head once again.

Fink had seen her several times over the years, had called on her to assist him as he did that day a few times before. She was easy to remember among the other Contracts living on the Phisto Hub. Her violet eye wasn't the only artificial thing about her, and though she did well to cover up most of the rest, he knew what she was, that for every bit of her that was the flesh and blood of her humanity, there were the cybernetic components, too. If he hadn't been bothered to learn her name, the circumstances of her existence couldn't have interested too much more.

"Then, Constance, remember in the future never to declare a task that has been put to you impossible unless you have exhausted absolutely every…"

"Teller Fink?" a curt voice spoke behind him, and he stopped talking at once. He didn't have to turn to know who it was standing at his empty doorway. "Both of you return to your duties," the man ordered Constance and the Contract man, and they departed without another word. If he could only have left the stupid door on the ground, Fink thought to himself as he turned about to face his visitor. The Contractor had not been alone, as it turned out, but his two guards had been extremely quiet.

"What may I do for you, Contractor… sir… Would you like something to…"

"What happened to your door, Teller?" the Contractor asked. Fink hesitated. The Contractor was observing the door, and the hole in the wall. He wouldn't have believed Fink for saying it had just come undone.

"Only a misunderstanding, nothing more. All taken care of, save for that door, but I promise it will…"

"Who did you speak to?" the Contractor cut him off once again, and Fink took a breath.

"A Seller came, he… He might not have been, only posing, or…" He cleared his throat. "He had a woman with him, claiming to need a… a-a cure, for children in her care, but I…" He clammed up when the Contractor turned his gaze on him, but he had no choice but to forge on. "I knew something wasn't right. I attempted… I was going to keep them here, and contact you, I was, only then others came. They broke down my door, and they all left together, that was it, that was…"

He had to lie, he couldn't tell the rest, that would mean… The look in the Contractor's eyes frightened Fink more than anything else he had encountered that day, and possibly his entire life thus far. It told things clear: he had better tell the truth.

"They came back… they forced me to talk, I-I…"

"Was the child with them?" the Contractor interrupted.

"The… the child?" Fink's eyes flicked to the door, which was back on the ground now that the task of fixing it had been put off.

"A boy or girl, you know what a child is, Fink, a child, a human child," he got up in the old man's face, and Fink's knees buckled.

"I don't know if he was human, I don't know what he was, but… there was a child with them, a boy, nine or ten years. He was the one to… He did that," Fink's trembling finger pointed at the hole in the wall. "Strong, so very strong," he promised, with as much reverence as would have been expected, in addressing the Contractor. The tall man seemed to be pleased by this information.

"Where did they go when they left?"

"I don't know, I swear. I was only…"

"Take him away," the Contractor didn't wait, and as he walked out, the guards seized Fink, who struggled at first before allowing himself, knowing he had no other choice, to be carried off to whatever fate the Office of Contractors had in store for him.

The last sight he'd had of his small little place was Constance and the old man returning, tools in hand, to do as they'd been commanded to do. Teller Fink was taken away, wondering if his advice to the cyborg girl would be the last one he ever gave.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	15. To Two, To Three

**A/N: As you might be able to guess from the lack of uploads in the last two weeks or so, things have been crazy in my life recently. But I've been working to get things back on track, and now here I am, with chapters 15 through 46 locked and loaded. I'll be uploading them throughout the evening, and if it takes too long, there may be some coming tomorrow, along with chapters 47 and 48 which will be for then.**

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><p><strong>"The Class of 2012"<strong>

**15. To Two, To Three**

_The Phisto Hub_

It took them a while to get past just exploring and discovering the hub. Like Gemma, they had been caught off guard at first, seeing what stood there in the sky. It was really happening, they had travelled in time and space, on a ship, with an alien. For some of them, it was the final proof they had needed, even if they'd come to believe in what their friends told them, there was still the chance it might all be an elaborate hoax… but not anymore. They had arrived, they could see it with their own eyes. They felt so small.

They had gone and returned to the place where the Doctor had found Twelve's group, the better to stop and understand where they stood, what they should do next. Introductions had been made amongst them all, to fill in the blanks for those who didn't know one another. Quinn told them how she'd met Dex at the circus, and he revealed how he'd been a prisoner. Artie told them of Jenny, who had come along with her associates Vastra and Strax – the first of which was also her wife – to help and unveil a secret plot happening in Indiana. Jenny explained why they hadn't come this time; it was just as well that they understood why. Santana and Brittany told about the Brannigan children, and what had happened when Agnes and Alfred were snatched up along with Brittany. The twins showed they were very much back to normal. And Puck told them who Jaime was to him, how someone had been trying to eliminate the links in between them. Jaime revealed how he had since remade his life, outside of prison. Puck could see Quinn's thoughts working out there was something he wasn't saying, but it was no time to explain how he'd met their daughter before she ever existed.

The two that remained, Rada and Jill, didn't go unnoticed. They could see there were only four of them from the other side who'd had nothing to say. Sam, Finn, Mike and Tina all wondered if it was possible the two women would become important to any of them eventually. For the time being, they were glad to tell something of themselves. Jill said she was an art consultant, while the very tall Rada claimed herself to be a teacher. They knew more than they were letting on, anyone could see it, but others among them had more pressing matters to discuss.

Some were of a mind that they should get on with finding this potential buyer, finding out what they knew, what they planned, while others were more on the side of not ignoring the potential gold mine of information that was the Phisto Hub itself. Clearly it all circled back to this place, so how could they ignore it?

In the end, they took a page from the Doctor's book and decided to split up. Half of them would carry on with the traders, while the rest would concentrate on this buyer lead. Quinn was of this first team, and thus so was Dex, and she was joined by Artie, Jenny, Sam, and Finn. After a beat, Rada had spoken up, expressing her wish to stay with them as well. The others were all set to go, until Finn asked them what they would do if they needed to communicate with one another.

"Well, for that, luckily, we are in the right place," Jaime tipped his head before leading them back outside. It wouldn't be the last time the ex-con's 'specific skills' would come in handy. He was as observant as they came, more so, and he knew the kind of people would be in a position to help them. Artie had tried to discreetly ask Puck if this meant his descendent would be on the lookout for criminals.

They came to a cabin, simple, maybe shabby, but most importantly empty. Going from Jaime's approach of it, the odds were this was just the place he was looking for.

"Let's wait outside," he told the others. "If anyone returns, we can…"

"You!" a voice startled them, and they turned to find a young woman standing just inside the cabin door. A bag was slung over her shoulder, possibly a tool bag. If they had to guess, the bag was made this way so she might retain the use of her arm, for she only had the one. They didn't know if they were more distracted by the one that was missing, or by her electrically violet eye. "I saw you before, you were the ones to break down Teller Fink's door!"

"That was me, actually," Dex raised his hand, and the girl gave him a stare that flashed, quickly silencing him.

"What do you want with him?" the girl asked the others.

"Nothing, nothing at all," Jaime assured her, stepping forward and also deftly leaving out the part about how the reason they had nothing to want of the old man because they'd already gotten everything they could want from him. "But we would like something from you. We'll pay, of course." The girl looked at them all, so intently that they wondered if that strange eyes of hers was scanning them.

"What are you looking for?" she eventually asked.

"Communication, long range," Jaime replied, and finally the girl went past them, putting the bag down before spinning back toward them, a mallet in hand.

"You say you can pay, then prove it." She was nervous, as hard as she tried to hide it. This wasn't her place to sell them anything, so all she'd have to appease her masters would be to show them they hadn't been cheated out of their due.

"They own you, don't they?" Dex stepped up and pulled himself to sit on the counter, better to meet her eye. "I was a prisoner once. They made me perform, almost every night, and then I was sent back to my tent. They said we were free during the day, sure. But if we tried to leave… Then the Doctor came, and well…" he gestured to himself, as good as saying 'here I am.'

"A doctor?" the girl almost seemed to flinch.

"Just the Doctor," Jenny nodded. "That's his name. He's gone to… He had something to do, but he left us to carry on."

"Why don't you come with us?" Brittany piped in, and whether or not she knew what it was that she'd led the others to think made no matter. Now Santana had an idea, and it might make them all move forward.

"Is this really what you want your whole life to be? Or do you want to be free?" The mallet was still up, but it didn't look to have all its fight left in it. Meanwhile, Finn had dug his hand in his pocket, and from it he extracted a few wrinkled bills, which he set down on the counter.

"Will this help?" he asked. The girl looked at him, then the money, then him again, and the whole group. Something about the simplicity of Finn's gesture had brought her to the conclusion that maybe they were just who they said they were. The mallet was lowered.

"Keep it," she told him before ducking under the counter and returning with a box tucked under her arm, which she had to fold in before being able to set the object on the counter. It wasn't that she had half an arm to work with; she had nothing, from the shoulder and down, which had made her fully reliant on her second shoulder, her good arm. She needed no help to show them the contents of the box. Like Fink, she provided them with what they needed, without charge, though while Fink had done it out of fear, the girl seemed now to be doing it out of utter defiance. "Will I really leave this place?"

"If that's what you want, you will," Artie assured her confidently. "What's your name?"

"Constance," she introduced herself, and the others would soon follow and return the favor.

The one-armed girl would stay with the group that stayed in the Phisto Hub, so she stood by, silent and just a bit unsure and insecure, while the others wished luck to those who would follow Fink's clue and sail on with Fink's transport, should it become necessary. They went, some might say, foolishly assured that no one was on to them.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	16. Things We Couldn't Say

**"The Class of 2012"**

**16. Things We Couldn't Say**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Walter had been getting used to the idea that his girlfriend was from the future, as well as anyone could be expected to do so. He was even starting to settle on the knowledge that the girl Rachel Berry was Gemma's future grandmother. But somehow now, with the addition of Sophie into the mix, it had gone the way of oddity all over again. Sophie was like the missing link in between them. Now Walter would look at the three of them... and he could see it. It wasn't just their faces, features and expressions alike, though these revealed their similarities now that he had all of it before him. There was something inherent to them, a quality that could not be explained through words. He'd had girlfriends before, he'd met some of their parents, but this was surpassing all past experiences, no contest.

"It's getting to you, too, isn't it?" He jumped, not having heard Julian Lucas approach him. The man was tall, and looking at him there could be no doubt, short of his having a twin perhaps, that he was Gemma's father. He had that same smile that lit all through his eyes.

"I... I don't..." Walter wasn't sure what he was getting at.

"When I first met Sophie, she wasn't much older than, well..." he gestured in Rachel's general direction. The girl was trailing after the Doctor, observing him as he went, which left the Doctor just shy of unnerved. "She reminds me so much of what she was like back then," he nodded to his wife. "It kind of freaks me out," he admitted. Walter wasn't expecting this kind of conversation with Mr. Lucas, having only met him minutes before. He wasn't complaining, not at all. Maybe that was just the kind of person he was... or he was letting him get comfortable, until he could turn on Dad Mode when least expected.

"But you've known about... this," Walter gestured around the TARDIS. "Gemma told me about the theater and..."

"I didn't know about it, not back then. I didn't know I'd just met my grown daughter, or the same day she was born."

Gemma had been seeing to Rada, who was debating what would happen with her shield when they reached their destination and the people there, who wouldn't be human, would see her for who she was. If they brought it up, then maybe it was just as well she revealed herself now. But then what about Sam?

"Gemma?" Sophie had called to her. When she'd finally come over, they'd stepped into a corner where they could talk in private.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I don't think I can do this," Sophie admitted. Gemma didn't have to ask her what this was about. She'd been seeing the anguish in her eyes for a year already.

"Mom, you can," Gemma promised her, clasping her hands. They were cold, trembling. "You didn't know she'd be here, did you?"

"I only wanted to see you again, that's all..." Sophie explained, and Gemma cupped her mother's hands with her own, to calm them, warm them, to give her what comfort she could.

"You understand why we can't tell her," Gemma spoke gently, and Sophie nodded. "It's not as though we would change anything if we did... Not about that..." she spoke frankly.

The illness that had swept off and carried Rachel Berry has been swift. A year had passed already, and nearly half of a second, too, but nothing could tear open anew a wound quite like seeing her here now, so young and bursting with life.

Sophie had taken it hardest of all, and when Julian had finally reached his time travelling daughter, the Doctor had taken her home without question. She hadn't seen the Time Lady again for months after that. She'd been too busy seeing after her mother to think of travelling.

When she'd gone to Indiana with the Doctor and young Artie, it had only been a week since she'd stepped back on the TARDIS. Starting again had been about moving on with her life, and she knew it was what her grandmother would have wanted. So when she had been sent to Lima, for this, for them, and when she'd seen Rachel, young Rachel, for the first time, she'd been at a loss. Should she thank the Doctor or hit her in the face, to spring this on her, after everything...

It was different now. She knew better, and she was glad for all they'd done, what they still had to do... Now she knew the stakes, and she needed them to succeed.

"I won't tell. I won't," Sophie finally promised, breathing out. Gemma embraced her. The one thing she'd hated, all those months, had been not to know how she was, but she knew, if there had been cause, the Doctor would have told her and she would have gone to her.

"I know," Gemma gave her a smile, and Sophie slowly but surely pulled herself together.

"Right," the Doctor spoke up, which the rest of them rightly interpreted to mean they should listen to him now. "Before we go to Tregh, it is important you understand just what it is you'll be walking into, which I realize now I should have told you earlier, but it..." He made a gesture as though to say 'it's fine,' clapped his hands together, and carried on. "What did Toh tell you about his world?" he turned to Sugar.

"He... He said they were sick" she stated, then thinking, "He kept talking about... a gate. He wouldn't say what that was about when I asked, just that he'd barely gotten out from under it."

"Yes, just as I thought. For a long time, despite calls for help, none came. But what will have been not long after Toh left, people did come, not to help, but to keep them in."

"Quarantine," Savelyn frowned, all too familiar with epidemics. Her aunt, her namesake, had died in one.

"Why would they do that, if they were too sick to do anything?" Mercedes asked, and the Doctor looked at her like he might have pinned a gold star on her.

Just then, there was a bell at the console, and the Doctor's face lost some of its elation.

"Company," he declared, moving to the source of the sound and tapping a key. A voice filled the room.

"Stay where you are. Your ship will be boarded for inspection."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	17. If You Know Where To Look

**"The Class of 2012"**

**17. If You Know Where to Look**

_The Phisto Hub_

With nine of them on the team making their way to look into this potential buyer, it was hard enough not to draw attention to themselves, so they had attempted not to walk too close to one another. Puck kept to Jaime's side, just as Santana and Brittany remained with the Brannigan cats. This left Mike and Tina with the one they knew only as Jill, and her status as a relative unknown to them was only made that much more obvious. They couldn't help but feel as though there was something they were missing. For however much they didn't know who she was, she didn't seem all that frazzled. She'd been sticking with them for a while already, in one way or another, and they wondered if maybe it was that she'd taken a liking to them, or she wanted to look after them, in a sort of motherly way, seeing as all the others had someone there with them.

"So how did you get here?" Tina asked as they were making their way through the marketplace. It was better than keeping quiet.

"We explained it earlier," Jill told her.

"No, I know, but I mean you had to have known the Doctor already, right? Otherwise why would he have brought you here?"

"I met him, some years ago," Jill nodded, understanding now. "He…" She hesitated as to how she might explain this, not revealing what she was meant to hide, without telling outright lies. "He rescued me, I guess you could say. I might have died if not for him… and his friends," she smiled, more to herself than to them. They couldn't understand how glad she was to see them here. After their adventure together, they had remained in touch, all of them, and they had become very close friends. They were her eldest son's godparents. But the Mike and Tina who stood by her now were still teenagers, still fresh in love, unaware of the many joys they had ahead of them. Gillian Moran Fiorentino had followed the Doctor who'd come to fetch her and bring her here because it was her chance to return a favor.

"So that's why you're here," Mike went on. "You're helping him like he helped you. Sort of like Gemma did." Jill smiled.

"Yes, exactly." By now she had to wonder if the future Mike and Tina had connected the dots already by the time the TARDIS had come to fetch her. When she'd go back, they would have a laugh about it.

Teller Fink had given them means of transport, but when they'd figured out where they needed to go, Constance had told them about the zip shuttles, which would take them directly where they needed to go, and so they went. With some effort, they had acquired themselves nine seats on the next and imminent departure. They had a cabin to themselves, which was just as well: they needed to figure out what they'd do once they arrived.

"We can't draw too much attention to ourselves, which will be… difficult," Jaime turned a look to the Brannigans, and Agnes hissed.

"We can cover up if it's so much of a problem," Alfred replied in turn.

Already they had established that it was best not to advertise where they were going, so they had set themselves up as getting off much further than they really were. But the zip shuttle would stop on the buyer's planet, and when they did, the nine of them would sneak off, letting any and all believe they were still in their cabin. There were plenty of opportunities for mistakes along the way, but it was their best chance.

Further planning had to be made fast. They didn't call it a zip for nothing, and they would be there within minutes. They needed to know exactly what they would be doing before they ever went to step off the shuttle. They weren't about to barge into this buyer's house and shout out their intentions. Jaime had become something of a de facto leader, and in this capacity he had promised he could get them more information through being covert than they ever would by only following the lead up front.

So they would go about, for reconnaissance, finding their ground before they dared to set foot on it. Jaime was confident he could find them what they needed, and they had little to no choice in believing him. Brittany kept whispering at Santana's ear, and whatever she said was making the other girl chuckle, looking in Puck's direction. It was clear to see their friend thought very highly of his descendant. The look in his eyes shone both of his looking up to Jaime, but also an almost parental pride in him.

As they'd neared the point where they were meant to get off, the tension had been rising, knowing their entire plan could fall to pieces if they didn't get to do this part right. But on Jaime's signal, they had left the cabin, discreet as they could, and they'd gone near the hatch, hiding again and waiting. Upon landing, more passengers had come through to exit, and when their chance arrived, the nine began to infiltrate themselves among them. They stepped out into daylight, blinking against it for a moment but then slipping away from the group as soon as they could. They knew they were meant to keep Jaime as their focal point. They were still keeping to smaller groups, and they didn't try to reunite right away. All they had to do really was to keep Jaime in their sights, and when the way was clear, they would move back to him, and they would carry on.

The longest part was the wait until the zip shuttle would leave, but finally it did, and it was with a sigh of relief that they watched it go. They had made it past the first hurdle; the next one was twice as high.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	18. Metal & Flesh

**"The Class of 2012"**

**18. Metal & Flesh**

_The Phisto Hub_

Figuring out what they were meant to do or even where to start was still just slightly blurred to them. They had agreed to this endeavor, but now that they were here, on their own, it was different. If not for Jenny, who like Jaime had taken charge among their group, they might still have been going in circle. It was not often that the young woman could be said to take charge in any way, but that wasn't to say she couldn't pull them together.

"Constance, is it?" she approached the cyborg girl, who may have chosen to stand and join them but still looked as though she needed to accept that she'd had that courage in her, that she shouldn't regret it.

If not for Finn giving her a quiet nod, she might have had more difficulty. It wasn't hard to expect this from him. He had sensed how nervous she was, and he'd also noticed their exchange with the money might have given her reason to look to him.

"That's right," she finally tipped her head forward.

"Can you tell us about this place? What's it like?" Jenny asked her. She had enough personal experience on the matter to recognize the worth of her knowledge. People like them, whether or not they were free, knew how it was to be invisible in plain sight.

"We go where we are told, do what we are told," Constance spoke with a detachment like she had enough to have it be her life without having to explain it and have it all pile up in her head. "We have no say, none at all," her hand hovered absentmindedly at her armless shoulder.

"Can they really do that?" Finn asked. "What about... What about your rights?" Constance looked at him, violet eye beaming.

"No rights. I belong to them. They provided the parts, payment wasn't met, so I was forfeit," she shook her head. "Either I came here or they took back what they could, and then I would be dead." She didn't say it, but deep down there was part of her who didn't see this as a problem as much as she used to.

Dex muttered something that sounded like a curse, whatever tongue it might have been. He had been a prisoner, kept there on the threat he could have never made it on Earth without them. Oh how he wished he could show them how wrong they'd been.

Finn hesitated but finally reached to grasp Constance's hand in reassurance. He didn't know what he'd expected, knowing what she was, but this hand was flesh, as normal as his own. She gave a small smile in thanks, to which he nodded. She was a good enough judge of character, had to be, living here in the hub, and all of these people standing around her felt truer than most anyone who had crossed her path in this place who wasn't forced to be. Most who came as clients were either too driven by the thing they sought to care about her kind, or they were so desperate that they didn't notice them.

"Are you the child they're looking for?" she asked Dex, her voice lowering.

"I haven't been a child in more than five centuries," he chuckled.

"You know about it then," Jenny spoke low as well.

"Hard not to," Constance confirmed. "It's been going in whispers for seven rotations."

"Rotations?" Finn asked. "Is that like years?"

"Something like that, yes. Tell me it's not here, the child..." she shook her head.

"It's not, don't worry," Jenny promised.

"They won't care that it's living, they'll use it as they need and then it'll die or it'll wish it did."

"We know," Quinn told her. "We won't let it happen," she turned a look to Sam, Artie and Finn. They were talking about their friend, and that only made it harder not to freak out.

They needed to find anything here that could help them make sure they could keep their promise. Constance could only lead them in the right direction, and they would gladly take it. They had all left their graduation gowns back in the TARDIS, and none of them had anything they could give her to disguise herself. Rada had offered what they were baffled was an oversized vest, which they could swear she hasn't been wearing shortly before.

It had taken some fixing, which Jenny had been happy to assist with, but soon it covered Constance and had enough to fashion a bit of a hood. Her long blond hair was twisted and hidden inside, though they could only do so much about the lack of her arm. They'd filled the empty sleeve and made her hold the end of it so that it might look like her hands were joined. It was not ideal, but it would have to do. Harder yet had been the eye. Even closed, it shone through. The only solution was for Constance would be to temporarily turn it off, which would leave her half blind. Finn continued in his supportive efforts, keeping within view so she could follow him.

There was no warning. They'd only been walking a short while, and before any of them could catch on to the possibility of being followed, they were surrounded.

It was too much of a frenzy for any of them to stop or understand what was happening. Finn was thrown down, then Quinn, and Jenny. Constance had one instinct in her when a scuffle happened, and it was to crouch and make herself small. Jenny had risen again, and she looked ready to take any of them on, but there were more than anticipated, too many, too close. Dex had his strength and his size on his side, and at first it might have seemed an easy solution, but there was more to it.

They were trying to pull at Artie, and when Sam had seen this he'd barrelled in. Rada had leapt in to free Quinn first, then found Finn had wrestled free...

But just as quick as it started, it was done. Their attackers had vanished.

"Is everyone okay?" Finn asked. "Quinn?" he asked, and she nodded, shaken. "Artie..." he went to help him back into his chair, which hadn't sustained much damage.

"He's hurt!" Rada warned and they looked around to see Sam holding on to his leg, which bled through his pants.

"It's fine," he grunted. Finn looked to Constance, still balled up, trembling.

"Hey, it's over," he told her, touching her shoulder. She startled, but finally she looked up. Her eye flared back to life. "They're gone."

"They're not the only ones," Quinn breathed. "Where's Dex? And Jenny... They took them."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	19. All Bases

**"The Class of 2012"**

**19. All Bases**

_The Lead Ship over Tregh_

Having entirely expected this turn, the Doctor had brought the TARDIS into the lead ship positioned around Tregh, instructing his companions to remain cautious once they stepped out of the TARDIS. Those people out there might respond poorly to quick movements or general insubordination. He would have left Sugar on board if not that he knew it would only draw attention to her if she was found out hiding in there.

They weren't greeted at gunpoint, but the tension was enough that it felt as though they were. They were all escorted off to where they might be questioned. At least the TARDIS was locked and was in no risk of being breached. They would try, that was no doubt. Having seen all fifteen of them file out of the blue box, he would have been more surprised if they weren't all wondering about what was past those doors.

Brin had been keeping close to Blaine since they knew they'd have to go out there, and he didn't question it, instead keeping just as close. He wouldn't leave her alone with these people.

For the time being however, only the Doctor would have to answer to anything, having announced himself as captain to this crew of his. He promised he would clarify their presence here, but only him. So the others were left to wait. The Doctor shared a look with Gemma which, if she really was a companion of his, he hoped she would interpret correctly.

"What was that about?" Julian asked.

"Don't wander off," Gemma sighed, sitting back.

"Like we could," Rachel tried not to look as scared as she felt.

"We'll be alright," Sophie spoke up, and when Rachel looked up at her, she managed to keep on smiling in comfort, despite the fact that she was looking her mother in the eye for the first time in a long while… and she had no idea. Seeing Rachel take the words and hold on to them, Sophie breathed, turning to her daughter, who bowed her head: she'd done well.

"What happens now?" Mercedes asked. Gemma had a pretty good idea about that, too.

The Doctor didn't worry about leaving Padra with the others. He knew they would protect her, Gemma most of all, but it wasn't in him not to see several steps ahead what might happen if she fell in the wrong hands. He wasn't going to show this at all as he was made to sit in front of some lieutenant or another. He sat back, well at ease.

"Do you understand where you are… Captain?" the man asked him, staring intently. He was trying to read him; the Doctor gave nothing.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't. It's leaving me to wonder if you do… Lieutenant. And you may call me Doctor. In fact, I insist." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out and presented his psychic paper. Teller Fink may have seen through him, but he didn't see it being the case with this man here. After a brief inspection, the man had looked at him, curious.

"A science team?" the lieutenant asked. "Some of them look no more than seventeen."

"Have to start them young, and what better place to learn than in the field?" the Doctor asked. The lieutenant contemplated the paper some more before handing it back.

"And you've come to investigate the planet, is that so? You and your… team."

"It is no doubt as much of a concern to you as it is to us that so many years have been allowed to pass, people born and dead, never knowing full health. Is it not?" the Doctor pressed the question. The lieutenant stared at him in silence for a beat.

"Naturally, yes," he finally replied, though it wasn't without sounding a bit forced.

"Excellent," the Doctor clapped his hands together.

"Not so fast," the lieutenant sat up. "You know about the quarantine order that has been in place these past years. You will also know there are those out there who don't agree with our methods. How do I know you are just as you say and this isn't some elaborate scheme to…"

"If it will appease you, sir," the Doctor cut him off. "I will gladly leave half my team here on your ship while the rest of us take our ship down to the surface in order to run some preliminary experiments."

He could finally appreciate their number, knowing that in leaving some of them here he would be showing a sign of faith, while at the same time making sure there were enough of them so they weren't isolated.

It had convinced the lieutenant, so when he'd been returned to the others, the Doctor had told them just what he'd told the man, so the others from the ship could hear him say it. The kids from McKinley and the rest of their contingent had been quick to catch on and play along, and he knew Gemma had found a way to prepare them.

Figuring out just how they would split was another matter. There were plenty he wished to keep near, but he knew he had to leave some so not to show his hand.

So Brin was made to stay behind, and with her Blaine wasn't far behind, which led to Kurt, and Corius and Della. Mercedes and Savelyn would round up the half staying behind. They watched as the Doctor led Gemma, Walter, Rachel, Sugar, Nira, Sophie and Julian back to the TARDIS.

They watched the ship disappear, as though it had never been there at all. After it had done this, they were told to sit again, to wait.

They wouldn't be staying in these seats. Gemma had warned them, that there was a possibility they would be split up, that if this was the case, then they would have to be careful, yes, but also if they saw an opportunity to find out more, then they should take it.

They were all too aware of their ever diminishing numbers, especially as now, except for Savelyn, none of them were particularly threatening or could give the impression of being in charge. And with young Brin in their care, it added to the difficulty.

But they had agreed to their task, and when a chance did come to slip away, they went, with as much self-assurance as they could hope to have.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	20. To Three, To Four

**"The Class of 2012"**

**20. To Three, To Four**

_The Lead Ship over Tregh_

It would have been easier to sneak about if they could have separated, but they couldn't, wouldn't. If the fear of getting trapped and unable to reunite wasn't enough, the thought of it, and being too close to their friends, they were left with the sole option of being particularly careful. They were one team, and they had to stay this way.

The only one among them who had any significant experience aboard a ship was Savelyn, and so she found herself elevated into leading them. They had to go where the information was, even if this so happened to be the potentially most dangerous place for them.

"Don't they have computers?" Brin asked in a whisper as they went down a hallway. "Maybe you can use one of them."

"Even if I could get past what security measures they have, I could only be leading them to us," Savelyn countered. A moment later, Brin held out a round flat object with a series of holes punched through it. Savelyn saw it and blinked. "Where did you…"

"I took it from one of the guards," Brin shrugged. "It was easy," she added, leaving out the part about it being some of the leftover bits in her head, from her 'training' at Isher.

"Alright, fine, we'll get to a terminal, but we need to make it quick."

The disc Brin had lifted from the guard, as the others learned, was some equivalent of an access key card. When Savelyn had inserted it at the terminal they'd found, it had made the screen light up, ready to accept her commands. The others had to save their celebrating for later.

"What are we looking for?" Blaine asked. They were all doing their best to see.

"Not sure yet," Savelyn frowned, typing away. "But we'll know it when we see it."

"Do they know about you-know-who?" Kurt asked. Gemma had instructed them not to mention Sugar's name if they could help it, even in passing, and to even try not to use words that would identify her gender. Unless it was necessary, they shouldn't talk about her at all.

"I don't know, let me look, I…"

"What about the plague? Someone's trying to buy it, right? Then they should know about it here," Della added.

"Yes, I know," Savelyn frowned.

What they managed to find on the deal for the plague itself wasn't much more than what they already knew. They did find there had been several inquiries on the matter. Some had been interests to acquire the illness as a weapon, as they knew, while others, which the Doctor had learned about when talking with the lieutenant, were protests lodged on the treatment of the people of Tregh. They had all been ignored.

But one of the inquiries had made mention of another world, and this one seemed particularly thorough. Corius had mentioned having seen the name in one of the protesters' inquiries, so they'd taken a closer look. It wasn't flat out written in so many words, but in reading cautiously between the lines, what they came to as a conclusion was something that surprised them, no matter how much they felt they should have seen it coming. This world, listed as Pelles Three, was being targeted. The plague was to be unleashed on them, should it be acquired, and by the looks of it, this might be happening sooner than anticipated.

"What do we do now?" Mercedes asked.

"We should wait for the Doctor to come back," Kurt nodded. "Then we'll tell him."

"It could be too late by then," Della wasn't convinced. "If we have to tell him, and they figure out that we know, it might wreck everything."

"Okay, so what if we just go?" Kurt decided. "Can we do that?" Everyone turned to Savelyn.

She'd been starting to think the same thing, but she was also looking at all of them, so young and potentially at risk. She only had vague memories about the Doctor up until today. Everything she did know she had learned from her mother and father. One way or the other, she respected the Time Lord, and she felt she had received these boys and girls into her care. It was up to her to keep them safe. But would they be any safer here? She'd seen how they'd looked at Brin when they'd arrived, and now more than ever she wondered if they had any belief that she was this cure-carrying child. Taking her away from here might have been the best thing for them to do. And the Doctor… the Doctor could find them again.

"Let me see," she turned to the terminal again, and after a quick search, she'd found what she'd been looking for. "Shuttles," she pointed.

"You mean… space… shuttles?" Blaine asked, uncertain. "Do you know how to fly it?"

"I'm a pilot, of course I can," she nodded, leaving out how she was technically still in training.

"And you know how to get us there?" Kurt asked.

"I have the coordinates, I can do it," she vowed. "If we're going to do this, it needs to be now. The longer we stay anywhere, the more chance they'll have of finding us, and if they haven't realized we're gone yet, it won't be long before they do."

They went chasing for the shuttles, trying to speed up while also keeping up with the knowledge that they were attempting not to be discovered. Twice they had come close to being spotted, but they eventually made it to the room as Savelyn had located it. And with the disc Brin had swiped, the entry was that much more facilitated.

"Won't they know if one of the shuttles takes off?" Kurt asked, after they'd had a moment to stare in awe.

"I can help with that," Corius stepped up, tugging his sister's arm so she'd assist him.

They boarded the shuttle, everyone sitting and buckling up, and once the siblings off Coreidis were all set, Savelyn took them up in flight, next stop Pelles Three. It might all end up being a dead end, but they had only this card to play, and so many lives who could be saved.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	21. Appearances Can Be

**"The Class of 2012"**

**21. Appearances Can Be**

_The Phisto Hub_

It would have been a fair approximation to say it had taken all of their mental strength to keep from lashing out as they were pulled along. One of the people had picked Dex up and thrown him over his shoulder, while two of the others had taken a side around Jenny and swept her off. Their vision was blacked out, a cloth tossed over their heads, so it wasn't until they'd been tossed into a room and they'd heard the door lock that they were able to pull it away. Dex was aggravated.

"Are you alright?" he asked Jenny.

"Yes, I'm fine," she blinked against the light. "Are you?" she asked him in turn.

"Couldn't be better," he joked, looking around. The room where they'd been left wasn't exactly luxury, and it was no doubt closer to think it had long been left in disuse, but as cells went, they'd known worse. "Did you count?"

"Six minutes and a quarter at a run," she rose to her feet.

"You could have left me, I'll be fine," he frowned. He didn't like feeling like others wanted to rescue him because of his size.

"Didn't look that way to me," Jenny stared down at him. Still sat on the ground, Dex squinted before putting his hand on the floor, palm up.

"Step on," he ordered. She stared at him, but he didn't budge. "Put your foot on my hand."

"I'll crush your bones," she refused.

"Fine, they're my bones, now do it." She stared at him some more, but finally she raised a tentative foot over his hand. She hadn't even set her weight down, and he grasped her shoe before lifting her, as far as his arm would raise, with barely any effort at all. Then, just for kicks, he got up, still with Jenny balanced in his hand. "Point taken?" he asked her. She stared, wide-eyed, before he set her down. "Do we understand each other now?" She smacked him on the head. "Hey!" he recoiled defensively.

"Don't do that again!" she scolded him.

"I'm sorry, I won't!" he swore. "I just wanted to show…"

"You let them take you, yes, I see that. Why'd you have to go and do a thing like that?"

"Says you," Dex frowned. "You did the same thing," he pointed an accusatory finger at her and she stood back. "You knocked that big one out cold, and that was not a fluke. You could have gotten away, and instead you let them take you, to protect the poor, innocent little boy…" he intoned dramatically, then frowned, "Who did not need saving!"

"If neither of us is trapped here, then why are we arguing?" she shouted back. They paused. He smiled. She smiled, too.

"Dex," he held up his hand.

"Jenny Flint," she shook it. "So why did you let them take you?"

"They wanted me, I could tell. What's the easiest way to find out why that is, and maybe find out some other things, too?"

"Right, fair," Jenny agreed. "Then that means…" Dex sat back down, on a stuffed chair this time. Jenny did the same. "So we have to wait here."

"Only time I don't mind looking so innocent, when I can get something out of it in return."

"That's not nice," she shook her head.

"Only to help people!" he defended himself. "Don't act like you haven't done the same." He stood, speaking in a tone clearly meant to be an imitation of her. "Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners?" he sighed, before tackling mid-air. He rolled on the ground before sitting up to look at Jenny again. "There's no shame," he shrugged. "I like that in a woman."

"Married," she warned, though it was getting harder to keep from smirking.

"He's lucky."

"She's a lizard."

"Well then I don't have a chance, do I?" he stood to return to his chair while she shook her head. "How come she's not here?"

"It's a long story," Jenny told him. Dex gestured around the room: they did have time to kill. "Never mind my marriage, there are more important things right now."

"Don't let her hear that."

"We need to reach the others. They could be hurt, or dead, or… dying. And suppose they're not, then they will be, if they try and free us."

"Yes, they'll definitely try that," he agreed, getting up again, this time to inspect the room. There was a small window, at the top of the back wall, barely enough to be considered a window at all. Dex moved to stand under it, lifting a carrying his chair, the better to stand on it. "I can see… not much, but some."

"Oh, hold on," she reached into her pocket. "We have this, don't we?" He turned and saw she was holding one of the communication devices so graciously given to them by Constance.

Almost as though their turn of luck had warned their captors, Dex and Jenny heard steps from outside the room. Dex scrambled off his chair, while Jenny hid the device in her dress. They both sat on the floor again, just where they had been left minutes ago.

They waited… and waited... No one came, and after the noise had died away, they breathed. It was a false alarm.

"Alright, new plan," Dex told her. "I guard the door, you make the call. Anyone tries to get in here, they'll find out just what I was famous for at the circus."

She didn't bother asking after that. Instead she moved across the room, to the chair under the window, while Dex stood and faced the door, daring it to open. Not that he had intent to kill anyone, but he might benefit from knocking one or two of them around for a bit.

No one came to interrupt them thought. Instead, Jenny made the call, waiting… waiting.

"Maybe they can't answer yet," Dex offered. "They could be hiding," he suggested.

"Yes… I'm sure they are."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	22. Redirect

**"The Class of 2012"**

**22. Redirect**

_The Phisto Hub_

They could see the slaves as they were picking themselves up off the ground. They could see them looking. Most tried to appear as though they couldn't see them, but others made no attempt to hide. They saw, but they didn't act, didn't even move. But then even Constance was acting as they did, though she was with the group. From up close, it seemed a bit clearer: the slaves were not supposed to involve themselves. So they picked themselves up on their own, stumbling and limping away until they could find a place to hide.

"Sam, your leg doesn't look good," Quinn went up to him as he lowered himself against a wall.

"Doesn't feel it either," he grunted, carefully pulling up his pants leg. There was blood everywhere, and the gash was still spilling some more. They were very much aware of their position, and their lack of resources. Could they even go to a hospital or a clinic if they found one? And those people were still out there, the ones who'd taken Jenny and Dex.

But without a word, Constance had come forward. She crouched in front of Sam, then knelt, observing his leg. The violet light of her eye trailed along to show the path of her gaze. They were almost certain now that she was performing some kind of scan.

"Artie? I need your vest," she finally spoke.

"My…" he blinked, but when she looked at him, he pulled off his sweater vest and handed it over.

"Will you help me?" the cyborg turned to Finn, who came and stooped by her. "I need your hands, just hold it out, stretch it," she instructed before pulling up her skirt to her knees.

Here they found yet more of her modifications. The right leg was metal from the foot and past the knee, as far as they could tell, while her left leg stopped at the ankle, mounted on a metal foot. Both feet were bordered in black, which had given them the impression of shoes before.

From her right leg, just at the knee, she pulled a thin piece of metal hidden inside. Giving Finn a nod to tell him to hold the vest right, she put the sharp end of the metal to the material and got cutting. It was easier than they would have imagined. She was used to working with the one arm.

Soon they had some manageable strips, which Quinn helped Constance to wrap around Sam's leg after having cleaned the wound as best they could. "Does it feel alright?" she asked Sam.

"It still hurts, but it'll have to do," he reached to gingerly touch his leg, while Constance replaced the metal bit in her own. "Thanks…"

The others had some minor scrapes, but on the whole they had been lucky. And now that Sam had been tended to, they had bigger things to worry about.

"We have to find Dex and Jenny," Quinn stood back up.

"How are we going to do that? We're not exactly on home turf, are we?" Artie pointed out.

"Do you know who those guys were?" Finn asked Constance. She bowed her head.

"I didn't… I didn't get a good enough look at them, I… I'm sorry, I should have."

"It's not your fault," Sam assured her.

"The masters… the rules… Don't get involved, I… I-I panicked, I didn't see…"

"Hey, it's okay, it is," Finn tapped her shoulder. "We'll still find them, we just need to…"

"Can you hear me? Hello? Arthur? Are you there?"

The voice rang out so unexpectedly, startling them, until they understood what it meant. Artie reached in his pocket, pulling out the device Constance had given them. It was lit.

"Jenny?" he spoke toward it.

"Ah, it works then. Can you all hear me?" her voice echoed from their pockets.

"Yes, we're here, we hear you. Are you okay? Is Dex with you?"

"Both fine, yes," Jenny promised. "Why wouldn't we be? We let them take us."

"You did what?" Rada said what they'd all thought.

"Actually Dex let himself be taken, for information, and I went to look after him, which he didn't agree on at all.

"No I did not," Dex's voice confirmed. "And Quinn, I can hear you roll your eyes from here, stop it."

"Where is here, do you know?" Quinn asked rather than commenting the rest.

"I'm looking out a small window now," Jenny replied. "I see a statue."

"A statue?" Constance looked up at once. "What does it look like?"

"A man, I think. I've only got the back of him, but his arms are, well… They're folded in, with the hands on the shoulders, it's almost reverent, the way he stands."

"Can you see the pedestal?" Constance asked.

"It has sides, eight, I think. There are people sitting at each one, very still like."

"Sam, can you walk?" Constance turned to him. Finn and Rada came in to help him stand.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," he nodded. He was still in pain, but he was ready to push through.

"Follow me," the slave girl led them off, slowly but surely.

"Do you know where they are?" Artie asked.

"The statue is in the barracks quarters. Each new quarter rotation, eight of us are chosen to stand about the statue, as devotion to our place in the hub. The man stands in submission," she folded in her arm in demonstration."

"Then that means…" Finn spoke after a beat of silence.

"They're being held in one of the barracks. If it was the guards, they would never…"

"Then, what? They're being held by the slaves?" Sam asked. Constance frowned, sighed. "But why?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	23. What You Seek

**"The Class of 2012"**

**23. What You Seek**

_The Riverlands of Mo Eeset_

It was hard not to find themselves relying on Jaime's 'particular set of skills' too heavily, but it was hard not to, with how he seemed to have the right idea of it. For what they sought to accomplish, his brand of trickery might have been their only course of action. After the zip shuttle had disappeared off into the sky after having – unbeknownst to it – dropped them off here, they had taken what time they could in order to familiarize themselves with their surroundings, and with the options they had. They had the information provided by Teller Fink, which had helped to bring them in the vicinity of those supposed buyers, and there Jaime had been able to both observe them and figure out how to play them.

He had been forced to bring up a bit of a disclaimer, in that he was working off a very quick assessment, and that even if he'd had much more time to watch them and get to know them, there would always be that element of the unknown, the unplanned, where things could still go wrong. They had to be prepared for the possibility of their plan going wrong.

It remained to be seen whether their appearance would draw much attention. Those of them who had come from McKinley and from the graduation ceremony there were dressed for the occasion, yes, but would it seem that way to the Meseti, the people of Mo Eeset? And what would they make of the cat boy and girl? The best they could do was to work with what they had, to walk with their heads high, defying anyone to comment in any way about the way they looked. So what if they looked strange: they had something to offer, something of great value.

It had been Agnes and Alfred's idea that the two of them should walk ahead of the group, sort of cold and silent, so others might see them as being there in a protective capacity. No one had to know how young they were, if they only saw the feline in them. Jaime stood at the head of the pack, just behind the cats, while the rest went in pairs, first Santana and Brittany, then Mike and Tina, and Puck and Gillian, taking up the position of rearguard.

They had a strategy to enact and no time to lose. It would take a solid four hours after having 'planted the lead,' with Jaime letting the notion float about that he might be in possession of a certain cure, to the illness most notably affecting the population of Tregh, before anyone came digging for it. He had made it so there was just enough information out there, casting himself as being just slightly out of his depth and just maybe being interested in a sale, before he and the rest of their group – with the cats still standing guard – went off, and sat, and casually waited.

The wait was only made worse by the sitting. Being on this strange new world, already not their first for the day but in every way uniquely interesting, and being unable to wander around was only getting more and more aggravating as time went on, but then Puck started them on playing a game, which he claimed to have developed over hours upon hours of detention, and though it was almost immediately dismissed on account of it just begging for them to get in trouble, and they were just starting to get a bit of conversation going, when Brittany tapped Santana's shoulder.

"Those guys over there are looking at us," she whispered, turning her face to her girlfriend so she wouldn't end up staring too hard. Santana snuck a look, which confirmed Brittany's claim.

"Hey, jailbirds," she muttered to Jaime and Puck. "Eyes on the road."

"My eyes are right where they need to be," Jaime spoke in an even tone. "It might be yours aren't entirely where they should be. For example, have you noticed there are a lot less people here than there were a few minutes ago?"

The table had grown tense. Jaime was right, the room had been emptying out, and if they had to guess, they would say it had started when those others had walked in, the ones Brittany had noticed. They knew who they were, and they knew better than to stand in their way.

"Stay here," Jaime told the others before standing. Agnes and Alfred looked at him for a moment before moving to join him, maintaining their cover no matter how unnerved they were. "Would I be correct to presume you've come to speak with us?" he asked the one he took for their leader. The man stepped forward.

"You have the cure?" he asked.

"Not here with us, no, but somewhere within reach, you have my word on that," Jaime nodded.

"I have no interest in your word, whoever you are. I don't know who sent you here, or what misguided sort of effort you were sent to achieve. Our only interests in acquiring this cure are so that we might use it as the currency that will get us the plague. It seems to me now that you would then find yourself in a position of stealing this plague out from under us. So you see where we are having a problem, don't you?" The cat siblings were bristling, sensing the danger already.

Before any of them had the time or capability to stop and take stock of what was about to happen, they had been seized, forced into a small room, and locked in. The Meseti agents were bent on seeing their deal go through, and they wouldn't have these amateurs getting in their way.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	24. The New Order

**"The Class of 2012"**

**24. The New Order**

_In the Mountains of Tregh_

It might have been for the best that they'd had to leave half their team behind, or the Doctor might not have had enough suits to get them all past the TARDIS doors. But once all of them had been properly outfitted, and once he had reminded them once more to not separate from the pack, they had stepped out on to the surface.

Separating wouldn't be a problem. The immediate impression they had been given was filled with so much desolation and pain that it was hard to stop and play the tourist. Sugar saw them all, just as tall and mighty looking as her old caretaker, with those same features, and although she'd never forget what he had looked like, she came to realize now that maybe she didn't remember him as clearly as she'd thought she did. But it all came back to her now.

She had not known Toh in his days of illness. By the time she'd been old enough to remember anything, he had recovered, thanks to her blood and what her mother had done with it. She saw the people of Tregh now, people who had never known anything but weakness, frailty… like a giant puppet being controlled by a small child who couldn't manage it. They were living their lives, the day to day of it, with misery in their eyes. It wasn't until Gemma put a hand to her shoulder that she blinked and felt that she was crying. She could only try and stop herself, so long as she had her helmet on.

"It's worse than I thought," the Doctor was stunned as well.

"You said these were really bad people?" Rachel asked, and he could understand her disbelief, with what she saw here; they all could.

"They used to say the approach of a Treian ship was enough to fill the population with a sense of dread. Hardly seemed worth the effort to even try and oppose them, not for the pain that would follow, once you had been so solidly defeated. It was easier to surrender, or to seek a quick and painless death. Escape required a window of opportunity that was both rare and small, and only rarely did it get you out of trouble for good."

Sugar looked around at the others, saw their faces as what the Doctor said played itself out in their minds. They could see the monsters easily enough, and why not? Even though the people they saw around them now were weakened by the illness coursing through them, they were still tall and impressive looking, so it couldn't have been so hard to see them as invaders, as pillagers and conquerors.

She couldn't do it. All she saw when she looked at them was her Toh. She saw him sitting on the ground by her bed to tell her stories before bed. Her mother didn't like him telling her the scary ones, but Sugar… Padra… couldn't get enough of them. Toh wasn't trying to scare her, not on purpose, but the stories he created for her were the only ones he could come up with. He had no fairy tales to give to her. He also didn't like to be interrupted, and he would give her a look that was meant to discourage her against it, but which only made her giggle. She saw the man who had hoisted her up on his shoulders and taken her running at such great speeds… She saw the man who had put her life as more important even than his own, and who had reassured her all those nights where she had to go to sleep wondering what had happened to her parents and where they would go next, and made her able to believe that things would get better in the end.

"That's not them though," she finally spoke up, looking at the Doctor. It almost looked like he'd been waiting for her to say something. "They're not like that, not anymore. You said they've been like this for generations, then those others people, the bad ones, they're all dead, it's…" she looked around, searching for the right words. "They're not them… These people, they're not those people. You can't treat them like they are," she insisted.

"Then what do you suggest?" the Doctor asked, with the smallest smile. She looked around. The people of the mountains had seen them all, walking up their roads, with their suits, clearly not of their kind, and though they did look apprehensive, they didn't approach.

"What would happen? If they got better, what would happen?"

"We can't know, not for certain," the Doctor shook his head.

"But you're a time traveller, you've seen the future," Sugar tried not to sound so exasperated.

"It doesn't always work like that," Gemma told her.

"Then what are we here for? I know I was little the last time I saw you, and you didn't even have the same face, but I don't think you would have brought us down here, me especially, if you didn't want to help Toh's people."

"Good," the Doctor indicated for them to move forward with him. "Then we understand one another just fine." Sugar stared for a moment, then sped up to keep up with him, as did the rest of the group.

"So we are helping them…"

"Whether this means distributing a cure or not remains to be seen," he warned her. "And let's not forget we are not here at our leisure," he pointed to the sky, to the ships they couldn't see from so far below.

"Where do we start?" Nira asked.

"The people. We start with the people, always the best place to start."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	25. Sitting Helpless

**"The Class of 2012"**

**25. Sitting Helpless**

_On the shuttle to Pelles Three_

At any moment they had expected for some alarm to start blasting through the cabin, alerting them that someone was chasing them or getting ready to shoot at them in retaliation for having wandered off and stolen the shuttle itself. It left them so tense that when Savelyn announced that they were coming down for a landing already, they stared at her in absolute surprise.

"Already?" Kurt asked. "Is this thing really fast or was it just really close?"

"I couldn't tell you how good this thing is compared to everything that's available out there, but we weren't that far off," Savelyn confirmed. "That'll be good news, if we need to go back in a hurry." When the shuttle had officially landed, the tremors gone away and the blue sky brightening the inside of the cabin, they'd all gotten the same question in their eyes: Now what?

"Is it safe out there? You know, to breathe and all?" Mercedes asked.

"It is," Savelyn confirmed, looking back to the console. "I've put us down somewhere out of the way, hopefully we won't have attracted too much attention with our landing. But we're clear to go out there, see what it's like, what's happening… and what we can do."

Stepping off the shuttle, knowing as they did that someone meant to drop a plague on this world, it just didn't seem fathomable. Why this place? They'd seen the sky as blue from inside the shuttle, and for lack of a better way of explaining it, it _felt_ blue, too. It felt calm, and peaceful, the perfect idyllic sort of place, where birds twittered about, children ran around barefoot, laughing… It looked as though the whole of Pelles Three was an endless, perfect summer's day, never knowing a single gray cloud.

"This is just like Aren!" Brin declared, a smile spreading over her features like a wave of crystal blue ocean.

"Is that where you're from?" Blaine asked, guessing, and she nodded. "How can you tell?"

"All the other places I've been, I've never been anywhere like it. The air's different, can't you feel it?" she asked him and the others, too. Her giddiness could almost have been contagious. She did have a point though; the air did feel different, not exactly heavier, just… nearer, like an embrace. Once they saw it that way, it was hard not to.

The smile on the girl's face changed, slowly, as a new thought hit her, with terror at its heel.

"Maybe this isn't the target," she spoke slowly.

"What do you mean?" Blaine asked.

"Maybe this is just the practice, and the real target is somewhere else. They do that sometimes… don't they?" she tacked on after a beat.

If the Doctor had been here, he might have looked into her face and understood something she hadn't told any of the others… Or maybe he already knew and he just hadn't said anything.

They had taken her memories away, before sending her home. It was the proper thing to do, because what eleven-year-old would want to remember how they had been brainwashed, trained as an assassin… She had killed people. Some were strangers, others… She had killed friends, not for wanting it, but because she'd been programmed for it, sent out into this place where only the very best were meant to come out alive. She had earned her victory with the blood of less fortunate children.

If not for the Doctor, and Donna, and Blaine, she might have been made to take one more life, but they had kept that from happening, and their last kindness had been to take all those memories away. But months later, closer to a year, they'd started to come back. It had been slow at first, but not so slow that she didn't come to realize they might have been real. She couldn't tell anyone, especially not her parents. Did they know what she'd done? They couldn't have. But she remembered, saw the faces of her victims, before they'd died, and after… She remembered when she'd nearly turned her weapon on herself, rather than to live with the terribleness of it all.

What had helped her put it behind her had been the memories of everything else that had happened, of her friends both old and new, of those of them who had sacrificed themselves, so she and the others might live. The Doctor had meant to give her back on to life, to not let her be snatched by death, and she wasn't about to let it go in vain. So she lived, as honorably as she should be expected, to atone for the lives that had been ended by her hands if not her will.

"Maybe it won't be like that," Blaine told her, and for a moment she could have been fooled to think he was saying this, knowing what she'd been through, but she knew this was a younger version of the man who had helped her at the academy, and he hadn't gone through it yet.

"If it is, then all these people here will be hurt, and then more after them," Savelyn had to point out.

"Either way, we have to warn them," Mercedes declared.

"What if there's not enough time?" Corius asked. "How many people live on this planet, how much shelter is there? They can't evacuate, and we don't know when the threat will come exactly." They only had what they'd heard, what they'd seen, and though they hadn't found any direct indication, what seemed clear was that it would be sooner rather than later.

"We still have to try, get it in motion… We could still find a way to stop it, all of us, and the others out there, the Doctor…" his sister Della stated.

"Then come on, what are we waiting for?" Brin started for the nearest settlement they saw. All she saw now, as they neared the people of Pelles Three, were those people she had killed as part of her tests, her training. None of them, not even her classmates, had done anything to deserve what they'd gotten, and neither would these people here.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	26. Not As It Appears

**"The Class of 2012"**

**26. Not As It Appears**

_The Phisto Hub_

The opportunity was just too good to ignore. The slave barracks were made so that the doors would require one person, either slave or master, would be needed in order to enter. This system had been introduced many rotations past, after a potential client had wandered in and made to take away two of the slaves. Now here they were, their little group seeking to be reunited with the two they'd been robbed of, and they had someone who could open the door for them, without raising any alarms at all.

Once they had figured out which of the barracks Dex and Jenny were being held in, and in what area, they had gone up to the building, and Constance had held her wrist to a reader. It beeped, and she pushed the door open.

"Quickly, inside," she whispered, having taken a quick peek to ensure no one was on the other side. The group hurried in, so they wouldn't have any problem from casual observers outside the barracks either.

It wasn't what they'd expected. Maybe for the way they had heard this place described, and what concept of slavery they understood, they had imagined dirtiness, or squalor… They got the impression of a dormitory, more than anything, maybe not the most upscale, but in good condition nonetheless.

"Our masters have ensured not to give the impression of mistreatment, here in the Phisto Hub at least," Constance explained, sensing their confusion.

"Have they ever… hit you, or…" Finn asked, hoping not to offend her in any way.

"A few have tried," she admitted, but it was the semblance of a smirk that troubled them. "One sprained a finger when he hit metal and he cried," she whispered as they started down the hall, causing her to have to shush them when a few gave stifled laughs. "They know they can do plenty to us without ever laying a finger on us," she countered, and it sobered them instantly.

The further they went, the stranger it all felt. At no time did they encounter resistance, and as much as they could tell themselves it was the middle of the day and they were working, it felt as though this should have been harder. They had to force themselves to remember not to walk so casually, to actually take precautions, check around corners. If they let their guard down, they might…

When the trio came from up the hall, both sides froze, not knowing what to do. They looked to their friends, then to each other, but no one seemed any closer to deciding if they should run or fight. It wasn't until one of the slaves spotted the violet eye that the tension broke.

"Constance?" She stepped forward.

"It's alright, Remy, they're friends," she promised.

"I don't think so," one of the other two shook his head. "We saw you with them outside, but you couldn't possibly have been _with_ them, could you?"

"She is," Finn declared. "And she's here for the same reason we are."

"Give us back our people," Artie requested. Constance stared at the trio, to Remy, who had been here nearly as long as she had. Even without her eye, she could have seen right through him.

"You're hiding them, aren't you?" she spoke, and the trio flinched. "Why would you…"

"You know as well as we do, Constance. You know what they're looking for," Remy explained, and now she did understand. She turned to the others.

"They think it's him. Dex. The cure."

"We heard them talking, they said they would go after him. We only meant to protect him, and we thought you had captured him," Remy added, and by his tone it would have seemed as though he had accepted that these people were not who they'd thought they were, and he was afraid of being punished.

"Capture Dex? Do you have any idea how strong he is?" Quinn asked. "He only looks like a child, but he's hundreds of years old," she revealed.

"He let himself be taken, to find out what your masters are up to," Sam told the three slaves.

"We thought he and Jenny were taken prisoners, we're here to rescue them," Artie followed. Remy looked to the other two, then nodded and motioned for them to come.

"We haven't harmed them, we swear," Remy told them as he opened the door.

"You all look terrible," were the first words out of Dex's mouth. He and Jenny were sat at a table, with full plates and cups.

"Glad you're alright," Quinn gave him a raised eyebrow. Remy had shut the door behind them, and now the reunited group and the slaves were able to try and talk, in honesty, with no one trying to hurt anyone else.

"Will you see to his leg?" Constance asked Remy, indicating Sam. "He was trained as a medic," she explained to the others, pointing to a patch on his sleeve. He retrieved a small box, and as they spoke, he cleaned, closed, and bandaged the cut.

"You took a big risk, bringing them here," Rada remarked, and the slaves looked to one another, deciding amongst themselves whether they could say what they wanted to say. But then Constance was with them, and if they could trust anything, it was that she wouldn't have brought them here unless she thought she could.

"We brought them here… We brought them here because we're done," Remy was the one to speak up. "We are tired, and we made up our minds… many of us," he passed a look to Constance, who clearly had no idea until then, "Things are about to change. We're taking our choices back. We're going to fight for them if we have to. We will not be owned, not anymore, not here, not on all the worlds controlled by the Phisto Hub."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	27. In Peace

**"The Class of 2012"**

**27. In Peace**

_The Mountains of Tregh_

Walking in the suits was clearly not what some of them would have hoped for, and the discomfort was clear on their faces, until they had to remember why they were wearing them, which came easily as they saw the Treian people around them. They had this way of protecting themselves against the plague; the Treian weren't so lucky.

They followed the Doctor, taking the speed of his stride to indicate he knew what he was doing. He was taking in his surroundings all at once, and for those of them who had spent any amount of time with the Doctor before, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Gemma could see her parents staring at him, not so used to seeing him in a situation like this… or as a man. Then there was Walter, and to some extent Rachel, too, who was witnessing what he'd only been told about by others before. The Treian were starting to take more and more notice, too, though they kept to themselves. And when the Doctor came up to what looked to be a small outdoor shop, the woman working the shop momentarily attempted to ignore him.

"Excuse me, sorry to bother you, but may I have a word?"

"I had my checkup already, last moon," the woman eventually spoke.

"Checkup?" the Doctor frowned. "Oh, no, I'm not a doctor, well… I am _the_ Doctor. It's a name, not an MD at all, although…"

"What is an… MD?" the woman asked. She was just barely taller than the Doctor, and even though she was as visibly ill as the rest of her kind, she could still possibly have smacked him good if she'd given it a solid effort, so they got on with what they'd come for.

"I understand you might have some concerns," he started, and the woman limped along across her shop as though her hip troubled her.

"Concerns? The only time any of us see any of your kind, you've come for blood, and tests, and nothing better. If I've offended you in some way, well… I don't see why I should care. We know more than you think we do, about what you see in us, about…"

"You're not a bad person," Sugar cut in, and Gemma pulled her back, giving her a pointed look. She could tell the girl wanted to bring up her old caretaker again, but now wasn't the time, just as this wasn't the place. If nothing else though, it caught the woman's attention, softened her just enough. The Doctor wasted no time.

"Your planet has been locked down for a number of years now, but what about before? Have any of your people ever escaped?"

"If you can call it that. Some did manage to leave, just before the possibility of travelling away from Tregh was revoked. A few were dragged back here, but some were never found again," she looked proud for a moment, but it faded fast. "They'll be dead by now, more than likely." She returned to her business, slow going as it was. The Doctor gave Sugar a look, hoping that what he'd managed to ask would be enough to appease her for now. She let out a breath; she wouldn't jump in like that again.

"And these others, the ones who look like us, they come often?" the Doctor asked the woman. She sighed; she wanted to be left alone.

"Every other new moon," she answered. "They collect our samples, promising that all the information they acquire from those samples will help to further our chances of healing." For a moment, she looked like she might have been able to smash something to bits. But she didn't have the energy for it, and that showed, too. "That's what they used to tell my mother, and her mother before that. If you ask me, it's only for show. They're not trying, they never have, and they never will. They like us down here, it's easier. Sometimes I wonder why they don't wipe us all out, save everyone the trouble of dying out this slow." They said nothing. "You're not from those ships, are you? Then you have no idea."

"Please, tell us," the Doctor told her, sympathetically. The woman stared at them all, in their suits, protected.

"It doesn't affect us all the same. Some get it worse, and some will live for many years, wishing they didn't. When my son was born, he wasn't nearly as sickly as most of the others. I thought maybe… maybe he would be there, when they finally did do as they said, found us a cure. He could live long enough to see it, even if I didn't. Then he took a turn. He went from being the strongest of us to the weakest in days. And then he went… Twelve years old. Maybe if they did something up there, he'd still be here." She limped off to her chair, and they could see the tremble in her, the tale of losing her son having drained what little she had of energy. Sophie had separated from the pack at that, approaching the woman slowly, crouching by her side. She said nothing, and neither did the woman, but they understood one another, and when the woman held out her hand, Sophie took it, bowing her head.

"If the people on the ship aren't researching the cure, what about here, on Tregh? What about your people? Have they been researching?" Gemma asked.

"There are a few, down at the clinic," the woman nodded. "Most of us never bother thinking things can change. I don't either, most of the time. But if they can… Then maybe some other mother or father won't have to go through what we did."

"Where is this clinic?" the Doctor asked. "We would like to speak to them." He could have told her they'd come to help, but until they'd actually achieved it, it would have been too cruel to start her on the path of hope for no reason.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	28. Confined

**"The Class of 2012"**

**28. Confined**

_The Riverlands of Mo Eeset_

The moment the door had closed and they had heard the turn of the lock, the mood in the room had changed. There was very little light, and not much more as far as space, and of all the groups to end up here on Mo Eeset, trapped in this room, it had to be the one with the ex-convict and the three former prisoners of Dr. Benedict.

Agnes and Alfred had found one another's hands right away, and had never been so glad for their eyesight in the dark. Agnes had sought out Brittany's hand as well, knowing she'd be having those same flashbacks the siblings were having. Already the blonde had sought out her girlfriend's hand and kept it firmly gripped. The one who had it the roughest was Jaime. The instinct in him was to pace, to try and work out the panic building inside him, but he couldn't do that. He would take three steps and find he had no more space to advance, before turning back and doing the same. It was once he'd started muttering to himself that Puck stepped in.

"Hey, man, you okay? Jaime, slow down…" he tried to stop him, reaching to his shoulder. The moment his hand touched, Jaime reacted by flipping him off his feet, pinning him to the ground. "Woah, hey, dude, it's me, it's Puck! Noah! You know me, remember? We're family!" he shouted. The others had been startled, scampering away, as much as they could. It took a moment of Jaime sitting there over his many times grandfather, breathing hard, looking at him, before the words connected, and he moved off of him. They said nothing for a several minutes, sitting and looking at each other.

"It wasn't… you, I… It wasn't…" Jaime finally spoke, and for hearing the fear strangling his voice, Puck sighed, moving to rise and offering his hand. "No, I… I think I need to stay down here right now," Jaime bowed his head, his arms tucked in and hiding his face entirely.

"Alright, then I'll come down here," Puck sat back down, and after a few seconds, the others started doing the same. "So we need to get out of here," he stated the obvious.

"How do you expect us to do that?" Santana asked. "There's no lock on the inside of the door knob, there are no windows, no air vents, anything that the movies have to offer is just not happening here. And by the way, nice job on the plan there, Shawshank."

"Leave him alone," Puck glared at her. "You didn't see it coming either."

"Please, don't fight," Brittany begged, and a squeeze of the hand brought Santana back down.

"Sorry," she told both Jaime and Puck after a while. "Say we do get out of here, what do we do now?"

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about it here, in case they're listening," Mike pointed out, and this put an end to that conversation. They still needed to get out of there though, and for a while none of them spoke, everyone trying to think of a plan.

It would be Brittany who'd find a way, and when she whispered to Santana, the other girl told her to whisper to the next one over and tell them to let the one next to them to lean in, and so on and so forth, so that they could all be huddled in and she could whisper them her plan.

"Well, okay, remember what the Doctor said, when we were in the TARDIS?" she started.

"When?" Tina asked.

"In the TARDIS," Brittany frowned at her, and Tina restrained herself from responding and dragging this on any further. "Remember, he said something about the trace… and you-know-who. He said it was di… diluted?" she looked to Santana, who gave her a nod. "So then there has to be some in us, right? That's what it means?"

"That is exactly what it means," Puck understood what she was getting at now. "Do you think it would work?"

"It's kind of our only shot, right?" Mike told him. "They can't just ignore us if we tell them we have the cure on us, that's what they've been looking for. They'll have to scan us or… something."

"All we need is to get them to open the door," Jaime spoke, sounding stronger again now. "After that…" he looked around at all of them, "We do what we have to, we get out, run as fast as we can. We'll find a way to get out. I swear I can get us there, all we need is to leave this room."

"Maybe you should all stand together, all of you with this trace. It might fool the readings," Gillian added.

It took some scrambling, as they all got up from the ground and shuffled themselves around so that Puck, Santana, Brittany, Mike, and Tina were all huddled together. When they were ready, Jaime banged hard on the door.

"Hey, we surrender!" he shouted. "We have the cure here! Just let us out and we'll give it to you! Do you hear me? We! Have! The! Cure!"

He kept on shouting, over and over, for nearly ten minutes, his throat getting raw, before they heard the advance of steps. He turned and signalled to the others: wait. The door opened, and the sudden return of light briefly startled them, but then Jaime was used to solitary, and his eyes readjusted quickly enough.

"You better stop shouting, or I…" the guard was saying, but Jaime cut him off.

"Were you even listening? I said we have the cure. That's what your bosses want, isn't it?" he asked, staring the man down. It would have been more threatening if his voice would stop cracking, but he more than made up for it in his stance. The guard blinked, though he tried to hide it, looking into the small room.

"I don't see any child," he stated.

"You know what they say, children grow up so fast," Jaime returned. "But then you're all still looking for a child? Listen, I don't want to make any assumptions on your bosses…"

"Which one is it?" the guard asked. Brittany pointed at Mike, Mike pointed at Puck, who pointed at Santana and Tina both, as they pointed at Brittany. The guard frowned, lifting up a device from his belt. He aimed it at the group and, going by the sounds the device gave off, it was picking up on something. All they needed was for him to walk a bit further into the room. As soon as he did, Jaime hit him from behind, and the guard was down. With the promise of open spaces, the ex-convict was beaming.

"What do you say we get out of here?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	29. Warning

**"The Class of 2012"**

**29. Warning**

_The Fields of Pelles Three_

Walking from the shuttle, seeing more and more of this place, the group had started to feel almost as though they were coming along to wreck everyone's day. None of them suspected that there was any danger coming their way, not from what they were seeing. If they did, then they were hiding it well. The people here were smiling, walking along to the rhythm of their own private happy song. And here came Mercedes, Kurt, Blaine and their friends, about to send them in a panic.

"I don't like this," Mercedes was the one to say it.

"None of us do," Kurt agreed, reaching for his friend's hand, giving it a quick squeeze for comfort.

"We need to find someone we can speak to, in private. The last thing we need is hysteria taking over," Della suggested.

As greetings went, from all of the groups now scattered from the Phisto Hub, to Mo Eeset, Tregh, and here on Pelles Three, this one received the most appreciated of welcomes. The people of Pelles Three looked as human as any of them did, and it was looking more and more as though, whether or not they _were_ human, they believed the shuttle group to be of the same kind, too. The group allowed for those they encountered to assume them as having arrived from another region of their world, furthering their effort not to spread panic.

The jovial welcome carried on as the new arrivals were brought in to eat, figuring their journey would have left them famished. As much as they tried to kindly decline, saying they had business to attend to, the moment the scents reached them, as delightful as the whole of Pelles Three seemed to be, they were convinced to sit around the table and be served.

"We have to keep going," Corius pointed out.

"We will," Kurt promised, taking a bite. "How do we find out who's in charge?"

"I think he is," Brin spoke. They turned to see where she was looking. A man had walked into home where they'd been brought, and the woman who had welcomed them greeted him as though he might have been her husband. There was something about him, as Brin had surmised, that gave off the impression of someone in a position of power. His wife had evidently just told him about their guests, as he turned and approached them with a broad smile on his face.

"Well, I must say, it is always a pleasure to receive visitors, and by the looks of you, I'd say you've come from very far," he looked around at them all. They hesitated. Did he know? They were going to have to tell him anyway, but somehow the fact that he had come on to this information by himself made them a bit nervous to confirm it. "It is our custom, to welcome visitors to a meal, and it is our honor to have carried out the custom ourselves, for guests such as yourselves," he tipped his head. They relaxed a bit at that, though there was still uncertainty in them. They'd all been ready to do what they'd come to do, but finding themselves brought into their world like this… "My name is Arrias," the man had introduced himself, and the others had followed with their own names.

"The thing is…" Blaine tried to start, then paused, looking to the others for assistance.

"We have reason to believe your world is in danger," Savelyn managed to say it. Arrias looked at them a moment before moving to sit at the table.

"Danger?" he asked. His wife was standing just across the room, and he gestured for her to leave.

"Has there been anything strange happening here lately? Anything out of the ordinary?" Della asked.

"Well, now… If I had to say…" he sat up, "There have been some other visitors, others who have come from past our skies," he looked to his guests. "These were not like you though," he added, like they might have been offended to be compared to these others. "Only their behavior was strange. I am the elected leader here, so naturally I met with them. They were not being honest, that much I can tell you. Do you believe they have something to do with this danger you speak of?" They hesitated, all but Brin. She saw too much of her own situation in this.

"We think… We know they are. They want to drop a plague on you," she stated, and the others had to keep from telling her not to be so blunt about it. When it came down to it, that might have been their only way of protecting the people of Pelles Three.

"A… A plague?" Arrias was stunned. "I don't understand, why would they want to do such a thing to my people?"

"We don't know," Savelyn told him. "But we have reason to believe it'll happen soon. We've come to help, in any way we can. If we can't stop it from happening, then the best we can do is try and protect all of you, but… we don't know how we can, not all…"

"But there is," Arrias cut in. "The underground city," he stood.

"The… what?" Kurt blinked.

"My people crave their comfort, you see? In the cold months, we relocate to the city below." Suddenly with this information, their views of the people of Pelles Three had changed from permanent lazy hazy days of summer, to creatures of comfort. It left them thinking that maybe there was more to this, something they weren't seeing, but they couldn't stop and think about that, not now.

"Can you find a way to get everyone down there, all across the planet?" Blaine asked.

"I will do my best to coordinate with the other leaders, but… Are you absolutely certain? There will be those who won't agree to this too easily."

"We're sure. It might be the only way."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	30. The Clinic

**"The Class of 2012"**

**30. The Clinic**

_In the Mountains of Tregh_

The clinic said a lot about the Treian people. The buildings all around, although they still stood, showed clear signs of wear, and a lack of care. It was just not the kind of work they could convince themselves to dedicate what little energy they had to tend to. But the clinic was pristine. It was the cleanest and most solid thing as far as the eye could see.

The Doctor and his team went through the door, and immediately the care and attention they had detected on the outside was replicated on the inside. For having been told what these tall beings were once known to do, what the group now saw painted an entirely different picture. They saw people helping one another, whether it was for a treatment or only to keep on walking. When they saw the people in their suits, most turned away without a word.

The woman from the shop had insisted to escort them up here. If they could do something for her people, then they had no time to lose. Here she had introduced them to one of the researchers on the team, but then the young woman had already been coming to find out who they were. Once the introductions had been made, she had asked for them to follow her, while the woman left to return to her shop.

Quickly they came to know about the clinic and its researchers. There wasn't any kind of medical school as they might understand it. There were so very few of them who had the drive to even try and learn, so those who did come along would then be paired to another who would be their teacher. Once they had proved themselves, the former pupils would in turn become the teacher to a new pupil. Everything they knew about the plague, about the search for the cure, the past results, the methods, came from a handful of sets of notes taken over time, kept hidden from 'the people above.' As cooperative as they claimed themselves to be, the Treian didn't trust the ship people not to come and take their hard work from them.

The team was small, only four of them working on it now. They had been five up until two moons before, when the elder member of their team had succumbed to the illness. Over the years, the team had evolved like this, gaining and losing members in almost equal measure. At their most they had been seven, at their least two. One wall had been marked for each of those researchers they had lost over time. The number spoke for itself.

It didn't take the Doctor long to realize that, for all the effort the team had put in, through years of research, coming to understand their situation better than anyone else, they were no closer to a cure than they'd been when the first of them had come together to try and work it out. All they had was what existed on Tregh, and they had scoured the planet as much as they could be expected to in their condition. The people on the ships were of no help, bringing no resources. They were there to keep them from leaving, and to test them every once in a while.

"You are a doctor, you say?" the woman asked.

"In a manner of speaking," the Doctor replied. That was alright by her.

"And you are from beyond the barrier line," she went on, and the Doctor nodded. She stared at him like she did not dare ask what she meant to ask, for fear the small beat of hope would have been for nothing. "Have you come to help us, Doctor?" Gemma was looking at him, and even from behind she could feel something in his stance, deliberately keeping from bringing anyone to attention, Sugar most of all. He wasn't ready to reveal her as the holder of a cure just yet.

"Yes, I have, we..." he now acknowledged the others. "We have come to help, in any way we can," he promised. The researcher looked at him for a moment. He was clearly in charge here.

"Then I need to have a word with you, if you'll follow me," she moved off without waiting on his answer. Where the woman from the shop had a problem with her hip, this one here had her own problems, which seemed to make every step a struggle, all through her spine. The Doctor had no choice but to go, and he gave Gemma a look before leaving: keep an eye on them, don't let them wander off.

The room he found the young woman in seemed to be for patient examinations. She had a thin long tube in her hand, which she pressed behind her neck before pressing the end. There was the sound of release, and she let out a breath. The relief to her back was not complete, but already what little amount she now had was better than nothing.

"Is it always this bad?" he asked her.

"Sometimes it's worse," she stated before moving to take a seat. "Would you like to tell me what it is you're not telling, or should I try and figure it out myself?" she stared up at him. He fidgeted, so she turned to a screen on the desk. "Everyone who enters the clinic is scanned at the door, for obvious reasons. We do our best to keep those on the healthier end of the scale from tipping to the other side. Now, when your team entered," she pointed, and he came forward. "A few things came up as odd, which is why I came to find you before. There's you, for instance. Your species is proving as difficult to identify as the reason why you have two distinct hearts, both of them yours, unless your kind carries through the males."

"Carries? No, now, two hearts, mine, only mine," he promised, tapping his chest twice. The researcher was almost smiling.

"Now as for the others, all of them appear of the same species, identified as human, although there are some odd minor discrepancies we cannot account for, and four of them from the same bloodline…"

"Four?" he asked, leaning in to the screen again. "It can't be, there are only… three."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	31. One Way or the Other

**"The Class of 2012"**

**31. One Way or the Other**

_The Phisto Hub_

The sight of the food had made it hard for them to ignore how hungry they were getting anymore, so when Remy and the others had offered to bring them some food as well, they had accepted. Now they sat in the room which had once supposedly been Dex and Jenny's holding cell, attempting not to be so loud that they might bring attention to themselves from other slaves or from the masters.

Finn saw Constance sitting on her own, without a plate. He didn't want to ask her if this was a cyborg thing, if she couldn't eat, but he did want to make sure she was alright. She had been helping them, even though it could get her in trouble, and he didn't think it was right for her to be so alone. Leaving his plate behind, he went up and sat across from her. She looked up at him, and then he realized he didn't entirely know what he was going to say to her. Anything he thought to ask just felt wrong. He couldn't ask her about the eating, or about the cyborg thing, could he? And then if he asked about her life in general, well… she was a slave. Even talking about his own life would have felt mean, when this is what she had to compare hers to… The last thing he wanted to do was to make her feel bad. He was this close to getting up again and leaving her when she spoke up.

"What do you want to know?" He didn't know what to say. "I don't mind," she insisted. "Most people I would, but then most people would ask me if they could feel my arm socket," she frowned before looking at him.

"I won't ask that, I promise," he told her, and that he'd gotten a smile out of her was a relief. "How… how long have you been here?"

"It's hard to say. Time doesn't go here the way it does everywhere else. I try to keep count, but I can't be certain. I think… it's been ten years at least. I'd only just turned fifteen."

"That's t…" He stopped himself from saying terrible. It wasn't like she didn't know. "What about your parents, your family?"

"I never knew them. I lived at the orphanage for as long as I could remember, that is until… There was a fire. Some of the children died, others were hurt… Many of us found homes after that, out of the pity of people's hearts, I guess. A man came and took me in while I was still recovering. I'd lost a foot, part of a leg, half my arm, and my eye, and there was more damage inside… He seemed fine in the beginning, and then he told me he was a scientist, that he wanted to help make me better. I thought he only meant he wanted to see me healed, but then he took me into his lab."

"How old were you then?" Finn had to ask.

"I was eleven," Constance replied. "First he gave me my foot," she made it move. "I had no means to even try and walk at that point, but I guess having it did make me feel like it would happen. Then the eye came. It was overwhelming at first, but I got used to it. Then the internal damage got worse, and he had to put me under, so he could deal with it. When I woke up…" Up until then, she'd been doing well enough, telling her story. Now something changed in her voice. "My leg, my arm… He took the rest of them away, even though they were healing. He said he would give me something even better. That was always it. Better… I could feel there were other things he'd changed, inside me. There was more metal than there was left of me, and now I felt trapped, used. Then he gave me my leg, and I had to learn how to use it, how to walk again. I hadn't walked in over a year. The arm came last because he kept changing it. He wanted it to be as real as possible, except… better."

"Better how?" Finn slowly asked.

"It could generate energy, incapacitate people, even kill them. I'd figured out how to use it, over time, and I wanted to use it on him… so bad… But I couldn't do it, couldn't take a life. Then people came. I thought they meant to rescue me, but actually they were there to… repossess me," she frowned at the word. "Something about an issue with payment. They brought me here, and since then I've been working."

"But your arm…" he cut in, then stopped, hoping he hadn't crossed a line.

"Someone bought it, a woman," Constance replied.

"They just sold your arm?"

"It was theirs to sell, like any part of me," she reminded him. "I know someday, if someone demands it, they will give them my leg, or my foot, or my eye…"

"We're not going to let that happen," Finn vowed, and again she smiled, though this one was sadder.

"You're a good person, Finn. We don't see a lot of those around here."

"I don't see a lot of 'here,'" he countered. "Before today, I had no idea this was possible," he revealed.

"You're handling it well," she remarked. He shrugged.

"I just want to get through it, make sure Rachel's okay and she comes back," he admitted. "That's… She's my girlfriend. She's off somewhere else, with some of the others. I wanted to go with her, but they said I had to stay." For what he'd been able to see and do here already though, maybe this wasn't a bad thing, he thought. "It's just hard, I guess, because we just graduated today, from school, and she's supposed to go to New York, that's… a city on Earth, where we're from."

"I know," Constance told him. "We've had humans here before."

"Oh… right… Well, see she's going there, and me, I…" He felt like he knew what he was supposed to do, but actually deciding that it was the right move was something else.

"She knows you love her?" Constance asked, and Finn looked at her. In the half light of this room, the violet eye was the brightest thing around, and it gave her a sort of magical air. He gave a small nod. "Then you'll find a way, both of you," she told him, confident, and he took her words, and he believed them, too.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	32. Bloodlines

**"The Class of 2012"**

**32. Bloodlines**

_The Mountains of Tregh_

When the Doctor had come for her, Gemma had passed 'watch' duty on to Walter, although there really wasn't all that much to concern themselves with. They weren't going anywhere, not with everything they were seeing around them. Whatever the Doctor needed her for at the moment was coming off as being of a much more urgent nature. He took her back into that same examination room, where the researcher, whose name the Doctor revealed to be Steh, was still sat in her chair.

"What's going on? Did you find something?" Gemma asked. The Doctor didn't speak. He stared at her, but he didn't speak. "Alright, I know that look, so could you please stop… What is it?" she frowned until the Doctor looked away, then back again.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me?" She stared, lost. "Any… developments I should know about?"

"Developments?" Now the look made sense. "I'm not…" she sighed. "If one more person asks me if I'm pregnant, I'm going to start thinking I've…"

"Right, then it's not you," the Doctor quickly cut her off before it could get any more awkward. "What about your mother?" Gemma glared at him. "And the girl, the little grandmother?"

"No," Gemma insisted. "Why are you…"

"Then I don't see how there can be four of you, from the same bloodline there, unless Walter is some uncle you didn't know…"

"Stop, right there, don't say another word," Gemma begged, wishing they could be alone for this. It wasn't that she didn't trust Steh, as much of a stranger as she was, but the whole matter had been wrapped in secrecy for so long. "It's Sugar."

"What's… That's not possible, she's from…"

"The future? I know," Gemma gave him a look. "Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't think about it sooner. Did you think it was random that I'd be the one sent to dilute the trace? I may not be having a baby now, but clearly I will, someday, and it will have one, too, and so on, and so forth, and somewhere three thousand years down the line, give or take a century…"

"Padra," he was dumbfounded. He looked past her, to the door, his mind wandering back to the other room, to the rest of them, and the one who was there accompanying her, not one of the students. "What about your friend…"

"Boyfriend," Gemma amended.

"Walter, was it? Does that make him…" he gestured, seeing her face and thinking there would be no words for him to say that wouldn't elicit a warning look from her. Instead, she looked nervous, like he was asking her to give something up.

"I don't know, the note didn't say. I'm glad it didn't though. I don't think I'd want to know, because… well, what does it mean if he isn't?" The Doctor said nothing at first, then…

"How long have you known?"

"About a month. There was a note delivered to my apartment. I think you didn't want me to know too far in advance, but that it was important I knew eventually, so I could piece it all together."

It had been so much more astounding to her than she was letting on now. Already she'd been faced with one side of her family tree, the past side, with her grandmother. Now she was seeing branches that had yet to grow, and bloom, and spread. It told her that her family would go on and on, across years, centuries, millennia… And all this time, she'd had two relatives sitting before her, in the choir room, her grandmother, and her many, many times granddaughter. What would they think, Rachel and Sugar, if they ever learned they were related?

The Doctor was looking at her, but then his eye passed to the side, and he saw something, movement, from under the door.

"Not just you," he hurried to open the door, and what he found on the other side was a startled Sugar, fogging up the inside of her helmet as she tried to catch her breath. "What are you doing…" he pulled her into the room and shut the door.

"I don't know, I… I was worried, and…" She kept looking over to Gemma, and the former substitute knew the girl had heard everything.

"No point left pretending, is there?" she smiled, and for the second time since they'd arrived on Tregh, Sugar cried. It was joy now that overwhelmed her, to realize that she'd had a family member there with her, no matter how distant, an actual blood relative, for the first time in over a decade. "You heard it all, right?" Gemma still asked, moving to stand in front of Sugar.

"Maybe not, but I did… I heard you say that I was related to you, in the future, that it was part of why you came to… you know," she tipped her head, too used to censoring herself when it came to her backstory.

"So you got the gist of it," Gemma concluded. Seeing the girl trapped in her suit as she smiled, tears on her cheeks, she couldn't help but pull her into her arms. Sugar held tight, gladly so. "When this is over, we'll talk," she promised.

"I don't understand, what's happening?" Steh asked the Doctor, as they stood apart from Gemma and Sugar.

"I wish I could explain it to you, but it would take far too long, and I'm already not entirely sure we should have said some of what was said, even though I'm certain you…"

Steh didn't reply, and when he looked at her, the Doctor knew why. She'd looked back to the screen, as though an idea had struck her. She was examining the readings from their entry into the clinic, to the more in-depth information, which hadn't been extracted until now. Whatever she saw, the Doctor didn't have to ask. She might not have pieced together that Sugar had the entire working cure within her, but she knew there was something about the girl that made her important to her team's work.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	33. Mad Dash

**"The Class of 2012"**

**33. Mad Dash**

_The Riverlands of Mo Eeset_

It would have been easier now, they realized, if they'd come from the Phisto Hub aboard a craft of their own, instead of finding their way on to the zip shuttle they'd used. Worse was that not one of them had one of Teller Fink's 'donated' transportation. Only three of them had pocketed one back in the hub, and all three had somehow managed to lose them, either in the tussle when they were shoved into the small room, or back on the first transport. There was no time and no way to go back and look for them, which now left them with one very important task: they had to find a way to get off Mo Eeset before the Meseti could catch them, and they had to make it back to the Phisto Hub.

"They'll know we escaped, and when they do they'll make sure we can't leave. We need to get on a ship before that happens, do you understand?" Jaime told the others as they ran.

"How are we supposed to just find a ship?" Tina was not doing so well keeping calm. She'd grabbed on to Mike's hand and refused to let go even a little. Seeing as Mike didn't want to risk her getting left behind, he wasn't complaining either.

"Won't that be the first place they look, if we go to that place where we got off?" Puck pointed out.

"Good thing that's the last place we'd go then," Jaime clapped his shoulder. "I saw something as we were coming down to land, let's go that way," he pointed, and the runners redirected, tailing after him. If any of them were concerned for being slow runners, holding them back, they didn't worry for long. Running, essentially, for their lives, had a way of giving them an extra boost.

They barely had time to make sure, but they did look back a few times, making sure they weren't being followed. Alfred had nearly fallen, but his sister had caught him mid trip, and they easily caught back up. No one was following them, not now, but they couldn't go on the assumption that it wouldn't change. Already their excursion to Mo Eeset was looking more and more like a wasted effort, so the last thing they needed was to get killed for it. That much was certain to them, if they were caught, they were done.

"There!" Jaime pointed, and they skidded to a stop.

"You're kidding," Santana panted.

"You have a better idea?" Puck asked. "I'm with Jaime."

"Of course you are, Grandpa."

They were just nearly at the water's edge, and not so far off, they could see a small island… and a ship.

"First we'd have to swim all the way over there, unless one of you is packing a boat, because unless you haven't seen, there aren't any here," Santana stated. "And second, what if there's people on there, or on that island? Can we even get into that thing?"

"Between the two of us, what do you think?" Puck spoke confidently, nodding to Jaime.

"That we've already struck out, and we're not going to get a third chance. That's if I force myself not to call you idiots. Can you fly?" she snapped on Jaime.

"Faster than your quips," he replied, and she had no comeback for that. "We need to decide, right now."

"I say we go for it," Mike spoke first, looking to Tina, who looked unsure but finally gave a nod.

"We're not very good swimmers," Agnes revealed.

"I can take one of you along with me," Jaime promised. "Puck?"

"I'll take the other one," he agreed. Gillian was on board, too, which only left Santana and Brittany.

"We have to," Brittany told her girlfriend, who sighed, looking back in the direction they'd come from before staring at the island again.

"Fine, let's just do this."

They waded into the water, and soon they were off, some choosing to stay under the surface as much as they could, the better not to be seen, while the others bobbed along or sped off. Jaime and Puck were slowed down some by supporting the cats, but they didn't stray too far back. It was several minutes before the first of them reached the other shore, where they looked out for the others and moved to help them, especially when the pairs came along.

"Everyone here?" Mike asked. Between the run and the swim, they were in need of a rest they couldn't get, not until they were off this planet.

With all of them present and accounted for, they started for the ship that Jaime had spotted. As far as they could tell, there were no people surrounding it, but then they could have been inside.

"What do we do if there are passengers?" Gillian asked.

"Ask them nicely to get the f…"

"Santana, we get it, you don't approve. You could try and help us instead?" Puck frowned at her.

"Wait, no, I have an idea!" Agnes sprang up. "Something Dad showed us," she looked to her brother, and he seemed to understand, too. "Go and take cover, over there," she pointed, before she and Alfred ran off to the other side of the ship. "Get ready to open that hatch there and run in, you'll know when!" The rest of the group didn't argue. They went and hid, unsure of what was about to happen.

Barely a minute later, another hatch opened, and out came spilling a dozen or so confused men and women. They were looking at the ship, and at one point they saw a man nod in a way that all but screamed 'good, we're all out.'

"Go!" Jaime told the others, and they made for the first hatch. As promised, he was able to get it open in a heartbeat, allowing for their group to get aboard. Agnes and Alfred had already made it back and they came on last, shutting the hatch, as Jaime was already headed to navigation.

"What did you do?" Brittany asked.

"Tripped some alarms, abandon ship and all," Alfred declared proudly. They laughed, just as the ship gave the first tremor. They were taking off. "Think they know we're gone yet?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	34. Made For

**"The Class of 2012"**

**34. Made For**

_The Mountains of Tregh_

In order to remove any chance at all of Sugar being infected when she had to remove her suit and let them draw her blood, she had been sent back to the TARDIS with Nira, who had been revealed to have trained as a nurse on Mercer. There was so much Sugar wanted to know about her childhood friend's life since they'd last seen each other, and getting to talk about it all while Nira was taking the blood samples was the best thing that could have happened. Sugar had never liked needles, and though everyone else had written it off, she knew the truth, knew that after that day in her kitchen, the sample they'd taken from her, she could never feel that sting without being brought back to the last moment she'd seen her birth mother and father.

Sugar learned how Nira had travelled from Mercer many times over the years, more recently on her own. She heard more about her nurse training, and she found out her friend was set to marry a boy they had both known as children, which made Sugar laugh so much Nira had to bring her back to reality so she wouldn't interrupt things or get hurt.

"Sorry," Sugar shut her eyes tight.

"I know," Nira promised. When she heard the door open, Sugar hesitated to open her eyes, too focused on the needle and blood situation, but when she looked, she was surprised to find Sophie and Julian had returned to the TARDIS.

"Hello," she spoke, not moving her head so she didn't have to look at her arm. "You're… you're Gemma's parents, you're…" Everything she'd found out in the clinic before was flooding back. If they were Gemma's mother and father, then they were related to her, too, except she couldn't…

"Gemma told us what she told you," Sophie revealed, and tense as she was, Sugar did breathe a small sigh of relief.

"She did?"

"We thought you might need some company, and we wanted to be there," Julian explained.

"Okay…" Sugar kept her eyes on them, concentrating on how they were part of her family, same as Gemma. She also wondered which of her parents had come from them. Both of them had lived on Mercer all their lives, but then it was so far in the future that anything could have happened, to go from Lima to the colonies.

"I'm almost done," Nira told her, while Sophie and Julian removed their helmets.

"You remind me of someone," Sugar told Sophie. The woman smiled, not wanting the thought of her own mother, and knowing that this was who she reminded Sugar of, unbeknownst to her, to give her secret away. She didn't doubt that the girl might have been able to keep it, all things considered, but she had promised Gemma not to say a word when she'd come and confided this part at least. "Gemma looks a lot like you two, I guess," Sugar had eventually written it off.

When Nira had finished with the blood, she had put her suit back on, the better to bring it to the clinic as soon as possible, which left Sugar and her great ancestors alone.

"Gemma told us what happened to you when you were little, with your parents, the hiding," Sophie told Sugar, who looked down to her arm, prodding very gently at the odd sort of thing she knew her friends would have identified solely as 'some kind of weird future cotton ball.' Being here, it was hard not to remember she was from a different time, even if there had been times, only a few years back, when all she wanted was to forget she had ever been anywhere else than with her new parents, or that she had been born, not in the nineteen nineties but in the fifty nineties.

She didn't want them to pity her, Sophie and Julian… They'd only just met her, knowing the truth she herself was still processing. Yes, she came hand in hand with her sad story, but she wasn't just that. She was Sugar, and she had been Padra… always the sweet girl.

"You didn't know about it before, so that means the Doctor will probably tell me not to say anything," she spoke as a way of diverting them away from her past.

"Maybe that's why we didn't see you so much when I was growing up," Sophie pointed out. "That can all change now. We'll find you again, when we go back to New York, I promise."

"But I'll be old by then," Sugar realized. She'd just gotten this family, now she knew she couldn't keep it. "What if I'm dead before you can…"

"We will find you," Julian looked her in the eye, and she believed him.

"We'll make up for lost time," Sophie added. It was the best she could hope for; she wouldn't throw it away.

After all three of them had fixed suits and helmets again, they had left the TARDIS and returned to the clinic. The people of Tregh had no idea what was really going on, but it seemed now as though they did understand something was changing, something interesting. They didn't approach the strangers in the suits but they didn't go out of their way to ignore them so much either.

By the time they'd found the Doctor and Steh and the others, the blood Nira had brought in was still in the midst of complete analysis, but already the Treian research team was looking more energized than any of them had seen since their arrival. They had confirmed the presence of something in her blood that could well counteract the thing that was attacking theirs. They all looked so happy to have her there, Sugar had respectfully asked if they might be able to help her track down anyone who might have known Toh, his family if he still had any. Steh promised they would look into it.

"What happens now?" Sugar asked. "Are you going to test it on someone? When they cured Toh, he said it took a long time before he really felt better."

"Well," the Doctor stepped up. "I think this is the part where I come in."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	35. Safe Mode

**"The Class of 2012"**

**35. Safe Mode**

_The Fields of Pelles Three_

They had never expected the process to be easy, or fast. First, Arrias had sent out a message to the other leaders, so that they might begin moving the population from their homes above ground to the settlements below. This had already been difficult, going by how often they heard Arrias raise his voice. It sounded almost strange coming from him, being as cheerful as all the others they had encountered in this place, but it did show how dire the situation was. Finally, after much arguing, the others had agreed to begin the relocating. That was the first step, and probably the easiest. Now that they had convinced the leaders, they had to convince everybody else.

The group had stood by, watching and listening as Arrias explained what was happening and what would happen. He chose not to speak about a plague, but instead of a terrible and unexpected natural disaster, and they didn't argue with him for that. As soon as the word plague came into play, the panic would strike. The alternative of the natural disaster wasn't exactly putting them at ease either, but it did soften the blow. Those who were ready to do as told had first wanted to return to their homes, to pack some of their belongings, but Arrias assured them there was no time. They had estimated it would take several hours to get everyone inside and settled, and they didn't want to waste even a minute, when they had no idea how long they really had. There was some muttering, but they had gone to the stairwells. They'd been easy; but there were those who weren't so.

They had only needed to see them standing there as Arrias had given his speech. They'd remained in clusters, talking amongst themselves, and as the crowd had dispersed, they were only revealed even more. When they were told they needed to go below, they didn't move. They didn't believe that what their leader said was true, didn't see any sign of whatever disaster he claimed was on its way. Whatever it was, there would be warning signs.

The disagreements had started from this, from a logical mindset. Then it had devolved to the scared, who saw how not everyone agreed to go, and latched on to that, telling themselves that if they didn't go, then maybe there was a reason and they should do the same. Arrias did his best to convince them, but the beloved leader was having no success at all.

It had taken Della and Corius' intervention to get things rolling again. The two of them were all too familiar with what happened when discord took shape between those who lead and those who are being led. They approached the groups, talked with them, shared with them. They were making a connection.

They didn't convince everyone, nor did they expect that they would. But for every one that walked off, preferring to sit at home and ride out whatever it was that would supposedly come, there were four, or five, or more, who quietly went about descending the long stairwells. Soon reports were coming in from the other leaders, showing that the relocation was all but complete. Arrias told the group to go and join the others below. He had to stay, to coordinate with the other leaders and lend them what assistance he could lend.

When he'd told them to go below though, it had hit the others with the realization… They did have to go.

"We can't just leave," Brin had stated it simply. "If they have to stay, why should we get to go?"

"We don't know how long we'll have to be there," Mercedes pointed out.

"Once we go, how do we know we'll even get to go out again?" Blaine added.

"The Doctor will come for us eventually, won't he?" Kurt asked. "He's going to try and stop this, he has to." He would have believed this, even if he hadn't seen the lengths the Time Lord was willing to go to.

"He'll do what needs to be done, but that might not be what we want," Mercedes shrugged, and they fell silent again.

"I'm staying," Savelyn stated. "I'm going down there with them." This was as good as putting an end to the argument, seeing as she was the only one of them who could even fly the shuttle.

They made their way down the stairwell, which was much more of a process than they realized. The underground settlements of Pelles Three were deep below, deep enough that just as Arrias promised, they had nothing to worry about.

As naturally idyllic as the surface had been, the underground had its own beauty, though it was darker, built rather than grown. The people of Pelles Three were familiar with this place, they relied on it, and the others could tell. Moving down here wasn't so much hurrying into a bunker as it was climbing over to their winter home a little early. If they could just get over the knowledge that they were below ground, and that for all its vastness they were for all intents and purposes boxed in, without sunlight or fresh air, then there was nothing to worry about.

They were shown to a place where they could sit and wait, and so they did. They were quiet at first, until Brin spoke up.

"Today's my birthday," she admitted. The others looked at her, the young girl who'd been keeping up with them throughout the day, who'd at times been braver than all of them.

"How old are you now?" Savelyn asked.

"Thirteen," Brin replied.

"What would you want to do? You know, if you weren't down here," Kurt realized the question would only remind her of their current predicament.

"It doesn't matter," she shrugged. Obviously it did matter to her, they knew, if she'd felt the desire to bring it up. They would have to keep waiting before they could do a thing about it. They would have to hope the Doctor did as they believed he would do… if he even knew how to find them in the first place.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	36. Pre Revolution

**"The Class of 2012"**

**36. Pre Revolution**

_The Phisto Hub_

They had to leave the barracks again, before they could risk being caught. If ever any of the slaves were perceived to do anything that looked like gathering, cooperating in too large of a group, the masters would see to discourage from ever doing it again, and if any of them had ever experienced this punishment, they were sure to pass on the rule to those more fortunate but less informed. Remy and Constance had worked out the plan together. The rest of the group would be sent to hide off in the shop where Constance worked, and after nightfall, or as close to it as the Phisto Hub would ever have, when there were much fewer clients about, the two slaves would leave their respective barracks and join them there.

Waiting out the rest of the day, holed up in the back of the shop, had been about as entertaining as one might expect. A few of them were not shy about expressing their disdain for sitting around inactively. Dex most of all wanted to be out there, to do something. In their time 'in captivity,' Jenny had managed to get a good idea of who he was and how he worked though, and so she was able to rein him in where the others had failed.

Constance had told them to listen for a series of bells, which would indicate the close of trade for the 'day,' and when they heard it they were visibly relieved. This meant it wouldn't be much longer until the others arrived and they could find out more.

Remy arrived first, without his friends from earlier. It was easier for one to sneak out instead of three. He didn't look all that comfortable with being out of bounds himself, so he didn't wait for Constance to arrive before he began to explain his side of things.

As it turned out, things had already been set in motion, for longer than most of them realized. Not everyone knew; not everyone could know. As much as they tried to spread the effort among the slaves, they were constantly afraid that it would all get too big, and sooner or later they would get themselves caught. The day this happened would be a very bad one, for all of them, whether they'd been involved or not. It hadn't reached Constance, not until that day, and they could tell if it had been up to him, Remy wouldn't have gotten her involved already, as though she would have been safer that way.

When the others had asked what had changed things for them, what had gotten them to decide they'd had enough and they needed to do something, Remy was about to reply when they heard the door and they froze. They relaxed again only when they caught the familiar violet glow sweep through the room. Constance apologized, saying she'd had more trouble than she'd hoped to get as she snuck out of her own barracks.

"This isn't the first time people have wanted to try," Remy assured them. "There will be those, newcomers especially, who will still have this thought that they're stronger, that they can find the way out, to get back to where they belong. The masters make sure to work it out of us as quickly as possible. But then we heard a story. A girl came here, to the Phisto Hub. She passed herself off as a Seller at first, which kept her hidden long enough. With all the coming and going, it's not always easy to know for certain, see? And while she was here, she told us about a friend of hers. The poor child had been taken from its home, to be hidden, protected, because there were people looking for it, because of a deal brokered here." Quinn looked to Sam, and Artie, and Finn. They had a feeling they'd heard this story before, only just that morning.

"What happened to… to it?" Quinn asked. The lack of gendered pronouns seemed to indicate whoever had told this tale – and so far only one name came to mind – had been following that same rule of keeping Padra's identity covered up at all costs.

"She didn't know. She never saw her again. People came, to her colony, trying to steal the child away, with little regard to its life, or to the lives of people who would try and stand in the way." How Nira had found her way here, they didn't know, but they did see the effects of her words. Her story, Padra… Sugar's story had lit a fire under them, and it could go one of two ways. They might bend the fire to their will, rise up… or they could get themselves burned.

"So all of you, what you're doing now… You want to shut down the Phisto Hub?" Artie asked.

"Oh, no," Remy shook his head. "That's the last thing we want. Whether we like it or not, this is our home. Some of us have nothing to go back to," he looked to Constance, who'd already been looking his way. "We need the business, need the commerce. But the hub has been abusing people's wishes and needs for too long. The system needs to change. We want to find a way to work together, without… ownership," he sought the word before speaking it.

"You think it can work?" Constance asked him. The violet light, when it hit Remy, looked sort of dream like.

"We believe it. Don't you?" he asked. She thought about it, she did. She thought about everything she'd seen in the years, the rotations since she'd been brought here. Remy was right, there was not that much more for her out there; the Phisto Hub was her home. Running would not have stopped her being what she'd been for ten long years, not really.

"How will you do it?" she asked. Here, the young man's face lost some of its fervor.

"We don't know yet. But we're working on it."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	37. One Cell & Another

**"The Class of 2012"**

**37. One Cell & Another**

_The Phisto Hub_

They were just slightly dry by the time they passed into the Phisto Hub's atmosphere. They left behind their stolen ship, having decided that, if it was at all possible, they would find a way to return it to its previous owners, who were stranded on an island back on Mo Eeset.

"How do we find the others?" Mike asked. The place looked different this time, like it was later, and most everyone had gone away.

"If the Doctor isn't back yet, then they'll need to find a…" Gillian was saying, until Jaime held up his hand: hold on, be quiet, it said. He looked around.

"We're being watched," he spoke, his voice low. The others tried to look around, as discreetly as they could manage, which was achieved with varying levels of success and failure.

"Let's keep walking," Gillian suggested, "We might be able to draw them out."

"Alright, let's go this way," Jaime told them, and they started walking. Whoever was watching them would have to know that they knew they were being watched, but there was nothing to be done for it. Now the best they could do was to keep going, without giving any reason for them to make a move.

"Can you see them?" Brittany whispered, to no one in particular.

"No, but he's right," Alfred said. "There's someone, I can feel it."

"What if we draw them out?" Agnes asked. She didn't want to wait for them to have the upper hand.

"If that's what all of you want," Jaime replied. "You know what might happen once they're not hiding anymore."

"They're going to come at us anyway, right?" Puck shrugged. "I say we get on with it."

"Yeah, okay," Santana agreed, as much as she hated having to agree with him after the swimming/ship debacle. They stopped where they stood, presenting themselves ready to face whatever was about to come their way.

The man who stepped into view appeared to be alone at first, but then the nearer he came, others stepped into view, uniformed guards, armed. The group did their best not to seem as though they suddenly regretted their decision. The man stopped three feet away from them.

"And you are?" Jaime asked.

"I represent the Office of Contractors, here on the Phisto Hub. And you," he nodded to Jaime, "You were seen earlier with a young boy. We would like to speak to this boy." It took the McKinley contingent a moment to understand he meant Dex. They hadn't spent nearly as much time with him as Jaime and the others from Twelve's group had.

"Well, as you can see, he's not here," Jaime indicated his team.

"Indeed, I see," the Contractor agreed. "We know he has not left the hub, so there is hope yet that we might locate him, with your help."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Puck spat.

When the guards had started closing in on them, they just barely had time to feel as though they were right back on Mo Eeset, about to be locked up. Then Jaime struck one of the guards and managed to get his weapon from him, keeping the man as his shield.

"I've had about enough of this for one day," he aimed at the other guards. "All of you, get out of here, now!" he told the rest of the group.

"No way," Puck refused.

"Noah, this is not the time for you to play hero, and you know why," Jaime gave him a look. He couldn't say 'because if you die then I won't ever be born,' not in front of the Contractor and his guards. All this would do would be that they'd shoot Puck. "Now do as you're told."

"You heard the man," Santana grasped his arm and tugged, and he followed.

"They're not following us!" Tina reported.

"Of course not. They want Dex, and they saw him with Jaime before, they said so. They have him now," Agnes pointed out. She'd realized it, and so had Jaime. When they stopped to look again, they saw he had thrown down the weapon and surrendered. If they could have, they would have killed him, but the Contractor wasn't letting them; they needed him. So they carried him away.

"We could have stopped them!" Puck shouted.

"Because that would have made things so much better?" Santana frowned. "Look, I know what he means to you, we'll get him out of there."

"She's right," Gillian jumped in. "They'll let their guard down, and that'll be our chance."

Knowing better than to make it too easy on the guards to see them, they'd had to keep their distances as they followed Jaime's escort. The perpetually dark skies did serve to give them the occasional cover, just as it made so that there were a few times when they almost lost track of their target. But then they saw a building up ahead, and they knew: this was the seat of the Office of Contractors. The hardest part was to stand back and watch as Jaime was taken inside, and the door closed behind him.

"So what's the plan here?" Puck asked as they tried to get closer without being too exposed. "How are we going to get…"

"Puck?" He looked up, recognizing the voice calling to him. There was Finn, crouched across the way, same as he and his group were. Looking past him now, he spotted a few of those others who'd come in with Jaime earlier, Jenny, and Rada. There were a couple others, a guy and a girl he didn't know. The girl had only one arm.

Careful as they jogged to meet them, Puck and his team moved to join Finn and the others. There were a few hugs, and the strangers were introduced as Constance and Remy.

"We saw them take Jaime," Jenny reported. "I thought you'd all gone…"

"We came back, and when we got here, they ambushed us. They're looking for Dex, where is he?"

"Hiding, with the others. It wasn't his idea," Constance reported.

"What about you, why are you all here? How did you know?" Mike asked.

"We didn't," Rada told him.

"We were… spying," Remy whispered.

"Right…" Puck frowned. "We need to talk to everyone else, whoever we've got. The Doctor's not back yet?" They shook their heads. "Whatever, we'll just have to get Jaime back ourselves."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	38. Divide & Unite

**"The Class of 2012"**

**38. Divide & Unite**

_The Lead Ship over Tregh_

The Doctor wasn't sure what his greeting would be as the TARDIS returned to the ship. He had left half of his people behind before heading down to Tregh, and now that they were back, he worried about the state he'd find them in.

The answer shouldn't have come as a surprise, but still it did. There was no 'state' to discover except for the fact that they were gone. Not only had they wandered off from the place where they'd been told to wait, but they had stolen a shuttle and hadn't been seen or heard from since. When he asked the ship's crew where they'd taken that shuttle, they said nothing, which the Doctor took to mean one of two things: they didn't want him to know, or possibly they didn't know it themselves.

When one of them asked what he intended to do now, about their shuttle, and about Tregh, and about a third thing the Doctor never found out about because he'd interrupted him by then, the Time Lord demanded to speak to his captain. The argument was short. They would inquire with the captain, and when the man chose to see him, he would see him, not before.

Considering themselves dismissed, the Doctor and his group returned to the TARDIS.

"I can find them," Gemma immediately offered. "With the trace on them, it won't be hard."

"Of course it won't," the Doctor tapped something on the console and a moment later shifted the screen to show her. "See, here they are. Pelles Three," he revealed. "Why they would go there, I haven't the faintest idea, but that is where they are," he went on, staring at the screen for a beat more before looking back to his future companion. "Naturally, I should take the TARDIS and get them back."

"But if you do that, then who will take care of the Treian, and the cure," Gemma shook her head. "If we leave and return, we could end up coming back at the wrong time, and then all we've done, all you've done, will have been for nothing. Let me go, I'll get them and bring them back."

"With all seven of them holding on to you? On that thing?" he pointed to her wrist, scoffed.

"You have a better idea? And I don't even know why I made that a question," she carried on nearly in the same breath.

"Well… now…" the Doctor briefly stalled, and just before she could say anything… "Wait, yes, ha!" he pointed in her face before reaching in his pocket, then the other. But then the more he thought about it, he knew it wouldn't work, even if he did find it.

"Ha?" Gemma turned his last exclamation back on him. They were on the verge of being lost, but then…

"Doctor?" Sophie spoke up, and he turned to her. "I think I'm supposed to give this to you now," she pulled something from her pocket. "The… other you said I should give you this when your pockets failed?" she shrugged as she offered him a flat round object. The Doctor took it, turned it over in his hand. He had never seen anything like it. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, aimed it at the disc.

"What else did I say?" he asked.

"I…" Sophie hesitated. She knew she wasn't meant to tell this Doctor too much about his future regeneration, and as far as she could tell, she could get away fine with that, up until she had to make sure not to say anything that would identify that this future self was a woman. "You didn't say anything more than that, the pockets thing. Except… I heard… Someone told me you could do something, sort of mind reading? It might be best if I told you this way."

When the Doctor would come and place his hands on either side of her head, the images he'd be treated to would tell him everything he needed to know. Ghosts, in a theater, generated… and this disc he now held. They were only glimpses, and he could sense Sophie barring his way, preventing him from seeing certain things. She was able to shut the doors in her mind where she needed to.

"So?" Gemma asked the Doctor, reaching to hold her mother's hand when he'd let go of her. "What did you see?"

Rather than answering, the Doctor had gone and connected the disc to the TARDIS console. Whatever he was doing to the thing was anyone's guess, and they knew better than to interrupt.

He disconnected the disc before returning to Gemma, and he pulled up her arm, where the vortex manipulator was still strapped. He fixed the disc on to the strap.

"Make sure everyone holds tight, understand?" he looked her in the eye. "I've modified it so it will create a field around you and bind you together so long as you travel as one. It is very important…"

"That we hold on, got it," Gemma touched the disc, made sure it wouldn't fall. In her head she gave silent to the Doctor, her own Doctor, the one who would come after this one. She knew where this thing had come from, knew it was linked to what had happened to her and her mother, the day she'd been born.

"I'm going with you," Walter stepped up. He didn't want to stay behind without her, and she didn't make him. She gave him a nod and he came to stand at her side.

"Come back as fast as you can," the Doctor told them both, as Gemma took Walter's hand and put it on the arm where she had the cuff, so he wouldn't let go. She took a look back to her parents, who were expectedly concerned, and she gave them a confident nod. She'd be back soon.

The others had stepped back, and after Gemma had tapped in the necessary information, she and Walter were gone. Without another word, the Doctor went and took the TARDIS back down to the surface of Tregh. They still had work to do.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	39. Friendly Secrets

**"The Class of 2012"**

**39. Friendly Secrets**

_Below the Fields of Pelles Three_

When they'd found the communications bay, it had felt suddenly as though they had found the solution to all their problems. They could find a way, somehow. They could call the Doctor, someone, anyone, and they could tell them where they were. But it was never going to work. They had no number to call, and even if they did, as far as they could see, this thing couldn't contact anything outside the Pelles System. Now they were even more depressed than they'd been before.

Mercedes hadn't been paying attention to much of anything since they'd gone to sit back down. It wasn't until she was startled by Brin dropping something – to which the girl apologized – that her gaze wandered, and she started looking at Kurt. He was talking to the brother and sister, Corius and Della. There was something about the whole thing that just didn't add up, the more she looked at those three together, and she tried… and tried… and…

"Kurt, can I talk to you for a sec?" Mercedes stood. He looked back at her, confused.

"I was just…" he pointed to the siblings.

"Now, come on," she motioned before moving aside. With a sigh, Kurt excused himself and followed his friend. As soon as he was within reach of her, she'd pulled for him to hurry up and follow faster.

"Mercedes, what are you…"

"What's going on with you and those guys?" she asked.

"Those… Who? Della and Corius?"

"Okay, see? Right there," she pointed at his face. "I get that today's been kind of weird and we've all been running around together, but if you just met them this morning, why are you behaving like you guys have been friends for ages? I know you around strangers, and that ain't it."

"They're just nice, okay?" he tried to defend himself, but he couldn't look her in the eye, and eventually he just let out a breath and looked around before turning back to her. "Fine, I met them before."

"Ha!"

"Be quiet, please," he shushed her. "You can't tell anyone."

"Why not?"

"It's a long story."

"Well it's not like we're stuck in an underground city, waiting for someone to drop a plague on us or anything," she pointed out, and she had him there.

"Okay, swear you won't tell," he spoke, needing her to give the promise.

"Cross my heart and everything," she nodded.

"I lied before. I've been lying for weeks. When you guys all tried to convince me that the Doctor was real, I… You didn't convince me. I mean, you didn't have to. I already knew he was real, because I'd met him," he revealed.

"What? When?"

"He just showed up at school one day. I'd seen him before, once, but I didn't know who he was or what he was, he was just a man in a store."

"Which one?"

"The Gap," he frowned.

"Not the store, Kurt, which Doctor?"

"He had glasses, and his hair was…" he mimed. She gave him a nod which said both that she knew which one he meant, and that he could continue his story. "He asked me to help him with something, and I went with him. Eventually he told me that he came for me because Blaine asked him to."

"Hold on a minute, he's met him before, too?" She wasn't sure whether to be amazed or aggravated.

"He hasn't, or… Well he has now, obviously, but the one I met, he's going to meet him, too, I'm not sure when, but after all this is over."

"So at least we know we get out of here," Mercedes breathed.

"In the future, after the Doctor took him home, apparently Blaine asked him to come and find me, to take me somewhere, like he did with him. The Doctor kept his promise, except he came now, a few weeks ago. That means it hasn't happened yet for Blaine. That's why you can't tell him, why I didn't tell you or anyone else. Blaine needs to be able to ask the Doctor, same as he did, that made that I got to go to Coreidis, and meet Della and Corius, and that's only going to happen if he doesn't know the truth. After he comes back from that, then… I get to tell him," Kurt smiled. Mercedes couldn't exactly be mad at him now, having heard the story, and understanding Kurt took this to mean he and his boyfriend would still be in each other's lives for a long while.

"So that must be why Brin sticks so close to him. She must have met him when he did his thing. That's why she's here," she pieced it together. Before Kurt could speak again, he heard his name called and looked up to see Blaine hurrying toward them. He threw Mercedes a look and she nodded; she wouldn't tell.

"There's people coming," Blaine told them.

"What, more stragglers?" Kurt asked.

"No, they say some people just appeared out of nowhere, outside."

"What if it's those people from the ship? They could be looking for Brin," Mercedes jumped in, and they hurried to go back to the group.

"Where did Corius and Della go?" Kurt asked when they arrived and found only Savelyn and Brin.

"They went up the stairs with some of them, to see who it was," Savelyn explained, indicating the people from Pelles Three.

The siblings from Coreidis had followed a handful of them, having had the same horrible concern that Mercedes had had. They needed to know what was happening, the better to have more time and decide what they could do. They weren't about to let anyone touch that girl.

But when the entrance to the underground city opened, letting in the daylight, the new arrivals were not stragglers, as Kurt had called them, and they weren't from the ship over Tregh either, although that was where they had departed from.

"Didn't the Doctor tell you to stay put?" Gemma asked.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	40. Who Goes

**"The Class of 2012"**

**40. Who Goes**

_The Phisto Hub_

The rest of the group from the hub had stayed back in Constance's shop. It had been better off to leave Artie behind if they were going to sneak around, and Sam could still use every chance he got to keep off his leg. Quinn might have gone, but she'd agreed to stay behind, to keep an eye on Sam, and to make sure Dex didn't get any ideas and try to join the others over at the Office of Contractors.

When the door opened, the old boy was the first on his feet though, ready to clobber anyone who might have been coming to hurt them.

"It's okay, it's just us," Finn told him, and he relaxed, only to be surprised as he saw the group entering the shop now had more than doubled in size.

"Look who's back," he turned to the others, who were even more relieved than he was.

"Are you guys okay?" Quinn asked her Glee Club friends. She'd come up to Santana and Brittany, and the three girls held on to one another. They might never have been as glad to see one another as they were in that moment.

"What happened to you two?" Puck asked, seeing the slightly banged up appearance of Artie's chair, and the ruin of one of Sam's pants leg, which had been torn away, revealing the clean bandage Remy had applied before.

"We were sort of… attacked," Artie hated to admit, knowing full well what the next question would be.

"You were? By who?" Tina asked it.

"Well…" Sam hesitated, too.

"It was Remy, and a few of the others," Constance finally said it, and she quickly slipped herself in front of her friend before Puck could get at him. "It was a misunderstanding, they thought we were the boy's captors," she explained.

"Again, not a child!" Dex argued, before being shushed by Quinn. "But she's telling the truth, you can trust him." Puck relaxed at that, though he still didn't fully trust Remy.

"There are people out there trying to get Dex, because they think he's the one that's got the cure," Sam explained.

"Yeah, we know, we met them out there," Santana told him.

"They got Jaime," Puck revealed. "They saw the two of them together before, so they think he'll tell them how to find him."

"Well that's just not happening," Dex scoffed.

"That's what we told them. But they still took him."

"He's with the Office of Contractors now," Remy told the group. "The Contractors are our masters. We are Contracts, because of the… agreement," he hated the word, "the agreement of our being passed into the Phisto Hub's service, for however long we have to."

There was a moment of silence, and it stretched on. No one was bringing up the trip to Mo Eeset; they had bigger things to worry about, and if there had been anything worth saying, they would have done it already. Right now their biggest concern was Jaime. If it hadn't been for him, they wouldn't have been able to do half the things they'd done, and they would have gotten themselves stuck in trouble more than they already had. Now he was the one who needed their help.

"I'll go," Dex said after a while. "I'll give myself up. It's not like I really have this cure of theirs, they'll figure it out easy enough."

"No way," Quinn shook her head. "They'll kill you."

"I'd like to see them try," Dex wasn't backing down. "They don't know how strong I am. They'd let me right through the door, and the moment they did, oh…" he grinned. "They won't see it coming. I'll get Jaime out of there. He's in there because of me, remember?"

"So long as they don't have you, and they still think you're the one they need, then they won't go looking for the one that really is. We need that bargaining chip," Quinn pulled his argument apart in a flash.

"I could do it," Jenny was next in offering up her services. "I could break into that place. I saw it before, I've dealt with plenty worse."

"If you're going, then so am I," Rada tipped her head to Jenny. "No sense in you going at it alone, and I have a trick to pull that will keep them plenty distracted," her hand fiddled with a bracelet at her wrist.

"Two of you, great," Santana nodded slowly. "Do you know how many there are of those guys? And we're supposed to just let you go in there by yourselves while we sit here and wait?"

"She's right," Finn looked to Santana, then to Jenny and Rada. "We can't let you go on your own."

"It's all of our mess," Dex went with it.

"Not yours," Quinn raised her finger to him, and he grumbled, sitting back down. "But the sentiment was right."

"Yeah, we've all had enough of being locked up for one day," Mike put in his piece, and Puck tapped his shoulder with a nod.

"So come on, what do you say? Balls to the wall?" he turned to the others. Those of them who had no idea what this meant only blinked, lost, while the others either chuckled or frowned at him. "I mean we give it everything we've got," he corrected himself, and now everyone was with him.

"We still need a plan," Artie was quick to add.

They made their plan, and if Remy's secret preparations had ever needed a strong and definitive kick off symbol, the invasion of the Office of Contractors was as good as any. For one moment, the Phisto Hub seemed to stop, when a handful of boys and girls from McKinley, a couple of cats, a nine-foot-tall Mesphorite, a Victorian maid, an art consultant and a pair of slaves breached the building and rescued the ex con on the verge of being interrogated. By the time they'd be back in the safety of the little shop, Dex and Sam would listen to the lively tale, wishing nothing more than to have been there, too.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	41. Widespread

**"The Class of 2012"**

**41. Widespread**

_The Mountains of Tregh_

When the TARDIS had landed back outside the clinic, they had all started putting their suits back on. The Doctor had already told them that he would only bring them down to the surface, before he went back to the ship above in hopes of getting a meeting with the captain. It wasn't until they were already half dressed though that Sophie requested to follow him up there. She knew that if they heard from Gemma at all, it would be through either the Doctor or the TARDIS, and she wanted to be there if/when it happened. Julian put in the same request, and though some part of him would have chosen to tell them no, the Doctor couldn't do it, so he agreed. With Gemma and Walter already gone, it now left only three of them, Rachel, Sugar, and Nira, to rejoin Steh and the rest of the team working at the clinic. The McKinley girls stayed close to Nira, who had seen so much more than they had in her life, which showed in how she carried herself. Sugar kept looking at Rachel now, and she wasn't entirely sure why.

"Are you okay?" she asked her, noticing now that she had a bit of a nervous look on her face.

"I'm fine, I just… the suit makes me feel a bit… claustrophobic," Rachel admitted. "Sometimes I feel like I want to take it off, to get some air, and then I remember…" she looked around at the Treian people. She wasn't so much afraid of them as she was afraid of what their sickness could do to her. Even in their present state, they still had this stature about them that made her think that anyone small as her would be brought down in a matter of hours, of days at the most. She admired them for the way they carried themselves. Once she could get her mind there, she was able to remind herself that they were here to help them, and that it was worth her small amount of discomfort. She was going to remember being here.

As they had returned to the clinic, the three of them had come to find there had been progress made already in their short absence. Before they'd gone back to the ship, the Doctor had been able to help the team work with Sugar's blood, to generate the shot they were to give to their first patient, where the process of healing would come faster than it had for Toh back in the Mercer Colony. There had been plenty of attempts at a cure over the years, and the people of Tregh were familiar with the effects of faulty treatments. So rather than to pass it on to someone before they knew for sure it would work, even though the tests on Sugar's blood were more than conclusive, the research team had selected Steh.

They hadn't seen her yet, after returning, but there was a sudden influx of people at the clinic now that made them believe they were in for good news. They returned to the research lab, where they found Steh up and hard at work.

It would take some time more, and a few more treatments, before she could be classified as properly healed, and even then she, and anyone else who would be treated, would continue to carry some scars and handicaps. But already there was a notable improvement in her posture, her energy… She had never felt like this, and it showed in bursts of enthusiasm. After years of work, and countless of their ever rotating roster being taken by the very illness they strove to eliminate, they could actually help their fellow Treian the way they'd wanted to.

The rest of the team had received their first shots, too, once they had examined and tested Steh and confirmed the things they could already see with their own eyes. Now they were hard at work as well, but they all stopped when they saw the trio who had returned.

"We've already started treating a few of our critical patients here… I've never seen anything like it," Steh took Sugar's gloved hands. Sugar could see so much of Toh in her face now, in the way she offered a smile. It wouldn't look like one, not to anyone who hadn't spent any extended amount of time with a Treian, but she had, so she smiled back. "When they find out who you are…"

"No," Sugar stopped smiling at that and she shook her head. "You can't tell them."

"You'll be a hero," Steh insisted.

"I don't want to be," Sugar told her. "I just want to go back home when this is over, and be… Sugar," she shrugged. Steh looked at her for a moment, then bowed her head. She understood. "So what happens now?"

"We are working to replicate the doses. They will be distributed when we have enough, but we do need to be careful. If word reaches the ships above before we're able to defend ourselves…"

"So then… we need to find a way to make them look the other way, right?" Nira asked, with a smile that told them she might have had an idea already.

"How are we going to do that?" Rachel asked.

"We'll need to get back to the Phisto Hub. Look, I've been there before."

"You have?" Sugar blinked, surprised.

"Yes," Nira nodded. "I talked to the slaves. And what you told me before, about why you're all here, I think we can use it. We just need to get everyone back to the Phisto Hub."

"All of us… But the Doctor's up in the ship with Gemma's parents… and the TARDIS," Sugar reminded her.

"Then until he gets back, you all keep doing what you've been doing," Nira told the researchers. They agreed. "Until then… Can we help at all?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	42. The Players

**"The Class of 2012"**

**42. The Players**

_The Lead Ship over Tregh_

If Walter had felt nervous being around Gemma's parents, he could eventually be reassured that at least he wasn't the only one. The Doctor hadn't expected to find himself alone with the two of them, and now he had to wonder as to the state of his future regeneration's relationship with their daughter. The way Sophie Perry looked at him, he had the feeling he wasn't gaining any points with her, but then he'd never had much luck with the mothers. He did know Gemma had been in Ohio for a while already, maybe that was it, or maybe she was only concerned for not knowing where her daughter was at the moment.

"I haven't known your daughter very long," he managed to say eventually, ignoring the times where he had caught a brief glimpse of her, or spoke to her for half a second before she hit that vortex manipulator and disappeared. "Someday I'll know her more, but you know this already," he scratched the back of his head. "What I mean to say is, for what I have come to see of her… she's quite the girl… woman… companion," he breathed out, as they finally landed, and he confirmed he was better off not saying anything at all. Anymore and he might get slapped… again.

Julian had tried not to laugh, though once the Doctor had his back turned, it was hard not to keep it in, but then Sophie smacked his arm, and he coughed and pulled himself together. She almost preferred for the Doctor to be this uncomfortable around them, if it meant he would take extra good care of her daughter, but it was of some comfort to know how much he already did hold her up the way he did. If he only knew how much she had been doing the same, all these years growing up with stories of the Doctor and the Teacher, and she'd had no idea it was her own daughter until much later.

They would have themselves a long, silent sit as they waited for the captain to receive them, to the point where they wondered if the lieutenant had even relayed their request. But then they were told that the captain was waiting to see them, and they were escorted into his cabin.

The captain sat up straight, waiting for them, though he did not stand when they were brought in. He watched as the Doctor, Sophie, and Julian took their seats.

"You wished to see me," he finally spoke, looking to the Doctor, who sat in the middle.

"I… Yes, I did," he frowned at the flat tone, like they were no more than an inconvenience, a passing one at that. "Now, I understand the need to be cautious with a plague such as has been affecting the Treian population all these years, but if you leant them more of a hand with this cure situation, surely they would be in no need of quarantine and constant guard. Don't you and your crew have better things to do than stand idly around a planet?"

The captain stared at him, and if the question had trumped him, he now gave his whole attention to it, sitting silently.

"Did he… turn off?" Sophie muttered as a joke.

The Doctor looked at her, then the captain again. Out of curiosity, he'd waved his hand in the man's face. He showed no reaction. The Doctor stood, and again the captain didn't move, so he reached for his screwdriver and inspected him.

"I've seen this before… I've seen it too many times…" he felt his hearts ramp up. "We've seen all we need to see, thank you, Captain," he spoke to the man, maybe to see what he'd do.

"Very well," the man stood and indicated the door. He remained where he stood until they'd gone.

The Doctor wasted no time, ushering Sophie and Julian back to the TARDIS before taking them off to Tregh. None of them had said a word until they made it to the clinic, after having slipped their suits back on, though the Doctor had seen plenty of questions on the two parents' faces.

"Doctor, you're back," Sugar stood when she saw him. She'd been sitting next to a bedridden Treian woman. "This is Mihl," she introduced her, smiling. "She's Toh's sister."

"Hello," he obliged, though he was just as hurried as he'd been since they'd left the ship. "We need to talk. Where's Rachel? Where's your friend?"

"Over there," Sugar pointed, "But…" He took her hand and she had no choice but to follow. They found Rachel and Nira, who had been sitting other critical patients having just received their first shots, to see how they responded. It had been in doing this that Steh had managed to confirm that they did have a family member of Toh's with them. Mihl had been very young the last time she'd seen her brother, but she was glad to hear about his years away and how he had been cured. She had understood it had to have come from Sugar, but she would keep it secret at the girl's request.

Once they'd been reunited, the six of them, Nira had told the Doctor about what they'd been discussing earlier, and about her plan for the Phisto Hub.

"I checked with Steh, she said she didn't need more of my blood, so we could go if we need to," Sugar added.

"Good, because that's just what we need to do. Back to the TARDIS, hurry now."

"What happened up there?" Rachel asked, sensing his urgency.

"Ask your friends Blaine and Kurt someday, they'll tell you a thing or two about trances," he replied after they were back through the blue doors.

"A trance?" Julian asked. "Is that what was wrong with him?"

"It was," the Doctor set them on their course back for the hub. "Which means he's not in charge, which means someone is pulling his strings, and right now making sure the Treian get well might be the best thing we can do."

"Doctor, what about Gemma? If she comes back to…" Sophie started to ask.

"She'll key in to the TARDIS, not Tregh or the ships above. She'll find us."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	43. What Is Done

**"The Class of 2012"**

**43. What is Done**

_Below the Fields of Pelles Three_

If Corius and Della had been surprised to find the two of them at the top of the stairwell, those who still waited below were even more startled to see their former substitute teacher and her boyfriend had joined them. They all had questions for Gemma and Walter, from how they'd gotten here or even known that was where they were, where was the Doctor, how were the others… Gemma had shown them the disc which had been fixed to the strap around her wrist, explaining that the Doctor had used the TARDIS to find them through the diluted trace. As far as they knew the Doctor was still on or near Tregh, and as far as how everyone was, she couldn't speak to the group which had remained at the Phisto Hub, but the others had been working with the Treian to give them the cure.

"You came to bring us back?" Kurt guessed, and she nodded.

"We'll all have to squeeze in close, but we'll be able to leave," she explained, holding up her wrist in show.

"But we can't just leave them," Brin cut in. "The plague…" They had to shush her, knowing the people of Pelles Three didn't know the true reason for their relocation.

"We won't be doing anything to help them if we stay here," Walter told her.

"That's right," Gemma nodded. "But if we get back to the Doctor, he might be able to stop this from ever happening." If they could count on one thing, it would be that the girl knew what the Doctor was capable of, that she could give him the benefit of the doubt, even for things like this, when the odds just didn't seem possible. Still, she hesitated.

"I need to ask her…" she dashed off, and the others followed after her.

"Ask who? Brin?" Blaine called. 'Her,' they eventually saw, was Arrias' wife, Eridan, who had been the first to greet them, welcome them.

"Sorry," Brin came up to Eridan, who was talking to an old woman. The leader's wife gave her old kind smile, nodding. "Is this place very strong?"

"Strong how?" Eridan asked.

"The ceiling… the roof, up there," Brin pointed. "What would it take for it to break?"

"Oh, now," Eridan laughed. "Don't you worry yourself. Our city below has stood for many generations already. There aren't places like this where you're from, is that it? You're not sure it will make it through this storm coming?" she asked, as though she didn't know what was actually coming, even if she had heard it up there. "The city will stand, there will be water to drink, food to eat, and air to breathe. We will all be perfectly alright."

"There, see?" Brin turned at the sound of Gemma's voice. She hadn't realized the others had followed.

"These are our friends," Kurt had spoken up, knowing Eridan had never seen Gemma or Walter before. "They've come to take us home." 'Home' was still not quite their next destination, but he sensed maybe they didn't have time to launch into the entire story of it.

"Brin was worried that it wouldn't be right for us to leave you," Gemma explained.

"I see," Eridan turned back to the girl, reaching out to embrace her, which Brin welcomed. "Like I told you, our city is strong, so don't let that keep you. And if you should find your way back here someday, you will always be welcome."

So they'd said their goodbyes, and they had made their way to the stairwell. They were going to have to wait until they made it back to the surface before they could transport themselves back. Gemma didn't want to run the risk of interference below ground accidentally sending them somewhere else than they meant to go. Maybe there was no danger of that and she was only looking at it from her perspective as a human of her time, but her parents had always been strong supporters of the 'better safe than sorry' policy. They began their long ascension back to the daylight and the fields, one behind the other.

"What happens once we get back? Where are we going exactly?" Kurt asked.

"We go wherever the Doctor is," Gemma replied. "After that we'll just have to wait and see."

They reached the top of the stairwell, pushing the door open and then shut again after they'd made it through. Walter had taken a moment to look around, this being his first proper glance around Pelles Three. Gemma smirked, seeing him so fascinated, and she looked around, too.

"Why would anyone want to ruin a place like this?" Walter couldn't even begin to understand it.

"We won't let them," Brin firmly declared.

"So what do we now?" Mercedes asked Gemma. The Doctor's companion blinked, turning back to her.

"What, sorry?"

"That thing there, how does it work?" Mercedes pointed to the strap on her arm.

"The vortex manipulator, yes, it…" she gave it a few taps before looking at the others. "You need to hold on tight, either to me or to each other, so long as we're all connected, okay? You can't let go, not for a moment." They joined up, Walter and Brin holding on to Gemma, Blaine holding to Brin, Kurt to him, Corius and Della to each other and to him, Mercedes to Savelyn, and her to Walter.

Gemma hit the last key, and as the Doctor had arranged, the field formed around them before taking them, from Pelles Three and over to what they soon saw was the Phisto Hub. They were standing next to the TARDIS.

"It worked…" Walter couldn't keep from stating out of relief as they all let go of one another, some of them a bit more startled than others at having been transported in this way. It was one thing to go by TARDIS, but this was not like that at all. The TARDIS was a comfortable, if at time turbulent flight on a plane. The strap was something closer to leaping off that plane and skydiving… into a tornado.

"Good," Gemma spoke. Walter looked back at her, about to ask if she was alright. "Go find the Doctor then," she told him, and just as he wondered if this was an apology in her eyes, she'd hit the key on the vortex manipulator again, and she was gone.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	44. Without Her

**"The Class of 2012"**

**44. Without Her**

_The Phisto Hub_

It had taken a few seconds for the surprise to pass, to process the fact that Gemma had gone away right after they'd made it here.

"What just happened?" Mercedes looked around, like maybe her eyes had gotten it wrong. "Where'd she go?" she turned to Walter, because surely he would know.

He hadn't moved. He just kept staring at the space where she'd been, his head tipped forward at the same level as it had been when his eyes were still aimed at his girlfriend. Only there was nothing left in that spot, because she'd transported herself away again, leaving him and the others behind. He couldn't say a word, or do much of anything. Wherever she'd gone, he couldn't follow, not without that wrist strap of hers. There was nothing he could do.

"Walter!" Kurt gave his arm a shake. "Did she say anything to you about this, when you guys came for us?"

"No… She didn't say…" he was coming to his senses now, and now his daze had turned into an edge of panic. He didn't know for certain where she'd gone. What he did know was that a moment before she'd gone, there'd been something strange in her voice, like she wasn't sure she'd be coming back. Now the last words she'd said to him were all he had left to think of. "We have to find the Doctor, he needs to know… we need to…"

"Kurt!" They all looked up. Running their way were Finn and a girl they'd never seen before. They saw her before they ever locked on to him; that violet eye of hers had a way of drawing attention, maybe more than her missing arm. "You made it!" Finn called, relieved as he reached them. "Did Miss Harrison, I mean… Gemma, did she find you?"

"She did, but… Where's the Doctor? He's here, right?" she looked back to the TARDIS.

"Yeah, he's over there, getting the others ready. We were waiting for you to get started," Finn explained. "Oh, this is Constance," he introduced the blonde at his side. "She's been helping us a lot," he nodded, and Constance bowed her head in greeting.

As they walked together, Finn explained how the Doctor had suddenly arrived, with those he'd taken to Tregh, or half of them at least. He had told them that the other group, those who'd ended up on Pelles Three, had gone there without his knowledge, and so when they'd been attempting to come back here, to reunite with the rest of them, he'd had to send Gemma and Walter to get them. He also filled them in on how Puck and Jaime and the others had taken a shuttle to Mo Eeset, attempting to get information on a potential buyer, but that the expedition had been kind of a bust and the others had been forced to run for their lives before they made it back here. He also told them about the business of breaking Jaime out of the Office of Contractors.

"Remy says it won't be long before it all goes crazy, so we need to hurry and do something."

"Who's Remy?" Savelyn asked.

"A slave, like me," Constance replied.

They didn't come to see the Doctor right away. Before they even made it there, they had been sighted by a few of them waiting outside Constance's shop. Among them were Gemma's parents, and when they saw their daughter's boyfriend approaching with the newly returned group, without Gemma, they hurried toward him.

"Where is she?" Julian asked. Walter was at a loss for words. "Where's Gemma?" Julian repeated the question.

"We're not sure," Blaine had spoken for Walter. "She might have gone back to where we were before, but there's no… We can't know for sure," he explained.

"She didn't say why, she just… she left," Walter had finally spoken. It had hit him harder than he realized, the thought that he might have just lost her, and as much as he'd been trying to pull himself together, as soon as he'd been faced with her parents, with their concern… He was right back at the bottom of the heap. "I couldn't even stop her. All she said was to let the Doctor know."

At this, Sophie had hurried into the shop, and Julian went after her, followed by Walter. The Doctor was hunched over the counter, working on a handful of identical pieces of what looked part metal and part glass, lined up before him.

"Doctor!" Sophie spoke up, and his hand stilled. He would have been tempted to point out that he could have hurt himself for being startled the way he was, but again urgency had a way of making itself heard.

"What is it, are they back?" He saw Julian, and Walter… "Where's Gemma?"

"She went back," Walter told him. "We think she went back, to Pelles Three." The Doctor put down the piece he'd been working on. He stood up, thinking, looking at the trio standing before him…

"What did she say? She did say something, didn't she?"

"Only to tell you," Walter revealed. Again, the Doctor considered his options.

"Tell the others to come in, all of them, the ones from McKinley that I brought, and all the others the future me was kind enough to bring us, too. It's time we got started."

"What about Gemma?" Sophie interceded. "Doctor, we can't just…"

"We can just," the Doctor cut her off. "You listen now, all three of you. If she went, I trust there was a reason important enough. I told you I haven't known her very long, but against all odds, I have learned to trust her, especially given the sacrifices she was willing to make to see us all to this moment here. Until proven otherwise, we do not intervene. We let Gemma do what she needs to do. In the meantime, we have a lot to do here, and you will know as well as I do that she would want us to carry on doing it."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	45. The Stragglers

**"The Class of 2012"**

**45. The Stragglers**

_The Fields of Pelles Three_

Maybe she was overthinking it. She'd only just come to this place, and as much as the others had told her a bit of what they'd been doing there, it really was all she had to go on. Still…

After she had opened her eyes to find herself right back where they'd left from, outside the stairwell, she'd looked down to her arm for a moment before undoing the strap from around her wrist and crouching to hide it where she could find it again. That was her ticket home, and if her instincts had been right, then she couldn't run the risk of anyone taking it away from her.

She followed the trail, approaching the place where she'd seen them before. Kurt had mentioned something about some of the people of Pelles Three resisting the relocation below ground, but seen some of them going by, and to her they didn't look like they were so concerned about running to shelter. They looked more like they were getting ready for something else.

It might have been easier if she'd been able to sneak along the populated area, but she'd followed them into open fields, where her only cover came from sparse trees and barely tall grass. She ran low where she could, crawled where she had no choice. When she spotted an outcrop of rocks on the other side, she made it her goal to reach it and use it for cover.

There were more of them out there though, and if any of them saw her she'd be done, so she kept to the ground. She could see… it didn't make sense… There were those stragglers who hadn't gone below ground, but there were others, too, people in uniforms. If she'd have been anywhere else all day, she might not have thought too much of it, but she knew these uniforms; they had been the first thing she'd seen as they'd stepped off the TARDIS and on to the ship in orbit over Tregh. The idea alone that they might be here only opened more questions, more possibilities. Now she wondered if the Doctor had really been all that upset for Kurt and the others having snuck off down here, or if he'd hoped for this when he'd left them behind on the ship.

They were building something. She couldn't see all of it, but what she did see made her feel as though she'd seen something like it before. It wasn't entirely the same, but the closest thing she could compare it to was the pulse generator which had been sold to the Mesphorite to fix their conduits underground. There was no way the hole it was perched over could have been dug since the order for relocation had been given, which meant this had been happening, little by little over time, unbeknownst to the majority of the inhabitants.

There were a pair of them talking, not too far from the rocks, so Gemma made up her mind to go there again, crawling through the grass until she could make a quick dash the rest of the way. When her back was finally pressed against the back of the stone wall, she took a deep breath of relief.

"… lock the hatches. Once the call comes in, we can't have anything or anyone coming up again," she heard the man on the other side say, so took another breath and turned to hug the rock wall and draw nearer, to hear better.

"How fast will the effect be, once the first discharge is through?" the uniformed woman asked.

"As soon as we can confirm we have acquired it and that it is on its way to us, a sedative will be piped through the system. By the time they wake again, it will be too late for them to react. They will have been weakened, the illness will have taken seat in them. It will be up to your teams to see to the state of the carriers after that."

Gemma wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't heard it herself, but she had, and now it was all coming together. Maybe they hadn't been that far off about Mo Eeset being a potential buyer, but the bigger question was who the Meseti were intending to buy from, the Phisto Hub… or Pelles Three. Somehow these people had become associated with the ships over Tregh, and they were plotting to turn this planet and its entire population into a sort of breeding ground for the plague, one they could control better maybe? She thought about the woman they'd spoken to on Tregh, and the researchers at the clinic. All these samples the officers had drawn from them, seemingly coming to nothing to help them… They were harvesting it all, and now she was almost certain she knew why. They were going to use it to infect the people below ground.

Had they found a way to orchestrate it all, using them to come swooping in with their warning so they could convince the people to take refuge in the underground cities, where they would be out of sight, controllable once infected, leaving their tranquil world above unmarred, and open for business? She ran it through her head, again and again, and all she could come to was that they couldn't have made it happen, not with how it all played out. More likely than not, their arrival, their warning, had been a serendipitous turn of events, giving them an even more believable reason to enact the relocation.

"And how long before our first buyers can be contacted?" the woman asked.

"A moon's turn, no more," the man assured her.

"Isn't your wife below ground with all of them?"

"She is, yes. It is a sacrifice I was willing to make."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	46. All Around

**"The Class of 2012"**

**46. All Around**

_The Phisto Hub_

One by one, the Doctor had watched them go, with Walter and Remy at his side. The twelve transport keys had been distributed among the fourteen McKinley boys and girls, each one accompanied by one or two companions, whether they were aware of the connection between them or not. Sugar and Nira had gone together, then Santana and Brittany with the Brannigan cats, Sam and Rada, Mike and Tina with 'Jill,' Puck and Jaime, Blaine and Brin, Kurt with Corius and Della, Artie and Jenny, Quinn and Dex, Mercedes and Savelyn, Finn with Constance, and finally Rachel with Sophie and Julian.

The Doctor took Walter and Remy to the TARDIS, so that he could confirm when all twelve clusters would be in position. On his screen, the image of the Phisto Hub appeared, the whole of it revealed not as a planet so much as an island in open space. The TARDIS was at its heart, the marketplace. He could see it marked as a pulsing light; now he just needed the other lights to appear, one by one, like the points of a clock around the hub's edge.

As they would appear there, the clusters would keep as near as they could to the lights the Doctor had given them to bring along. Out here near the edge, there was no settlement, no shops, no barracks, and so the only source of light left to them were the spherical lamps the Doctor had provided.

"What happens if we fall over the end?" Brittany asked when she and Santana and the cats had found themselves at their designated point.

"Let's not find out, okay?" Santana spoke evenly, trying not to let her girlfriend's words coalesce into a mental picture. Still, they couldn't help but try and see. The air was colder here, and if the eeriness of this place wasn't enough to give her chills, the weather only made it bad enough that she could have grated cheese off her arms.

"Are you ready?" Agnes asked. She and her brother had one simple task in all this, even if Santana and Brittany were one of two who had gone in pairs in all this: they had to be there for them, so they weren't alone, so they could be safe, no matter what. And even though the cats were not holders of this diluted trace, they had travelled on the TARDIS, and as the Doctor had told them, it just might count for something in the end.

"You should do it," Brittany held out the transport key to Santana. "I don't want to break it."

"You won't," Santana insisted, and the blonde sighed, holding on to both ends, the metal and the glass, before pulling apart and twisting, revealing a dim light inside. "See?" she smiled, and Brittany placed the cracked key in her palm before offering it. As there were two of them, they would have to be holding on to it at the same time, so Santana pressed her palm against the object before clasping hands with Brittany. They waited for a moment. "Do you feel anything?"

"Not really, I…" Their hands appeared to glow for a beat, until they realized it was only the light of the key peering through. "Woah…"

"Don't let go, remember?"

"I know," Brittany promised.

Nearly all the way across the Phisto Hub's surface, Rachel had been preparing to grasp her own key. The chill and the darkness were freaking her out even more, so much so that she wouldn't dare take a step forward when she realized where they were.

"Rachel? You'll be okay," Sophie told her, her voice much steadier than she would have expected it to be under the circumstances. "Take my hand, we'll get closer together. Can you do that?" she held out her hand, and to explain to anyone how she could recognize her mother while also seeing her daughters in one girl's face would have required words she didn't have. When Rachel had given her hand over and they'd started walking forward, even though the girl was obviously grown and no longer a child, it brought back so many memories, of her own childhood, of Gemma's, and Ginny's…

"I think that's close enough, right?" Rachel finally breathed, and they stopped. When they'd let go of one another's hands, she'd smiled to Sophie. "Thanks," she said, and the woman looked like she might cry, which Rachel took as concern for her daughter. "I'm sure Gemma will be okay," she nodded, to her and to Julian.

"Yes," Sophie agreed quietly. Rachel looked to the transport key in her hand before breaking it open, just like the Doctor had told them to do. When it was ready, she laid it in her palm and trapped it in place as she curved in her fingers. Within moments, it lit up, too.

All around the Phisto Hub, the lights were going on, and inside the TARDIS they would as well, blooming into life around the circular image on the Doctor's screen. When the last ones lit up, he moved into action.

"What's happening now?" Walter asked. The Doctor had only explained it briefly earlier, only enough that they had the general idea of it.

"The key will lock on to that part of the trace they have in them…"

"But I thought Gemma said some of them met you in the future and…" Walter started to say, before being interrupted just as he had interrupted the Doctor.

"The reasons for which that is of no matter would force me to tell you things I shouldn't be telling you, and so I won't. All you need to know is that, yes, it will work. The key will lock on to it, and it will concentrate, essentially giving off the energy that one unbroken trace would give, only twelvefold. There are people all around who have been looking for that girl, and those ships over Tregh, and whoever is pulling the strings on the captain will be unable to ignore it." The mechanism for the keys had been inspired in part by the machine he had encountered once at Orcus Penitentiary. If it could reach through time by genealogy, then why couldn't he do this?

"Won't that bring all kinds of danger to the hub?" Remy worried, looking around the ship he'd been mystified to learn was bigger on the inside.

"The TARDIS will help localize the signal to Tregh and its vicinity," the Doctor reassured him. It would come with a message: They may have the plague on trade, but they had the cure, and they would make it so widely available, starting with the slaves of the Phisto Hub, until it was unstoppable… unlike the plague. They had seen to it, thanks to a gift from Steh and her team, and the Doctor's work, while he was busy with the keys. Already it had started something in the open that Remy and his team had only done in hiding. It was uniting them, making them want to stand.

"Is that it?" Walter pointed to the console, seeing a light had just now started to flash. The Doctor flipped a switch, and the image on the screen was replaced with that of a man who looked for the most part jovial, except there was something in his smile that didn't conquer his whole face.

"So I hear you have our cure, is that so?" the man asked.

"It is so," the Doctor confirmed, straightening up. "And you are…"

"Arrias, elected leader of the field region of Pelles Three. This cure means a lot to you then? Let's have ourselves a trade then," he nodded off screen. The Doctor knew what would happen next, and he wished he'd had time to warn Walter or make him leave, but already a pair of guards in familiar uniforms had brought Gemma into view. "I believe this one belongs to you?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	47. Heightened

_**A/N: **Finally all caught up! Thank you for your patience (I'm looking at you, people with alerts on for me/this story ;)) I'd send you cookies if I could..._

* * *

><p><strong>"The Class of 2012"<strong>

**47. Heightened**

_The Phisto Hub_

Rachel had been standing in her spot for nearly ten minutes already. After one minutes she had shut her eyes, imagining herself somewhere different, somewhere with lights, and warmth… Times Square on a summer's day. She imagined herself anywhere and everywhere that wasn't here. It was either that or getting spooked enough by the darkness at the edge of the hub and wrecking this thing they were meant to be doing. After all this time though, she couldn't help herself asking.

"How long do I have to keep this up, do you know, are… You're still there, right?" she called out to Gemma's parents.

"We are," Julian assured her. "And I don't know, but I think when it's over you'll…"

He stopped talking all at once, and Rachel was instantly yanked from her sunny scenarios, wondering what could have caused him to stop, until she heard a sound she already knew by now as one sound they should always be calmed to hear. She opened her eyes, just as the TARDIS was materializing. She looked to her closed hand, finding the light was still on… Was she supposed to keep holding it or not?

When the doors opened, the trio looked up to find first the Doctor and then Walter stepping out to join them. There was something strange in their eyes, something they eventually came to figure out was dread. They knew what they were about to say would upset them, the parents especially.

"Doctor?" Sophie spoke first. Somewhere in her heard she had a feeling she knew what this was about. "What is it, what's wrong?"

"Sophie, Julian, you listen to these words now above all else, because they are my vow to you: it will be alright." Sophie blindly reached for her husband's hand, and he put it in hers.

"Tell us," she demanded.

"Our message was heard, and we received a response, from a man on Pelles Three. It seems, whatever it was that she must have seen, to make her want to go back this much, it got her… caught," the Doctor eventually explained, making as much of an effort as he could to meet their eyes, to show his sincerity.

He'd had less time to make himself collected or encouraging whilst dealing with the immediate aftermath, and with Walter. Already he'd been unnerved by the way she'd disappeared, how the Doctor hadn't gone after her, but now the danger was real, and it had a face, and intent… and it had Gemma. The man just might have tried flying the TARDIS to get her himself if he had any concept at all on how to do it. He'd been the one to insist they come and inform her parents right away, to keep them in the loop.

"What… what happens now?" Sophie asked, with all the composure she could muster at the moment. "We need t-to go get her, Doctor… Please…"

"I will go," the Doctor told the parents, and Rachel, and Walter. "I will go, but all of you need to stay here. I will bring her back, do you understand? Everyone goes home today," he made his vow. "Right now, I need your help. You need to seal the key again and use it to go and tell the others to return to the marketplace," he hurried back to the TARDIS. "You need to stay with them… Walter," he turned, catching the young man trailing after him.

"No way," he shook his head. "I have to go, I have to help her."

"You need to be here," the Doctor insisted.

"How would you know what I need? I love her, Doctor, I love Gemma, and she's in danger."

"Yes, she is, and if this was only about how you love her, I would still say the same thing I am telling you now, which is that you are more likely of doing something stupid, and it will get her hurt."

"What else can it be about?" Walter asked, trying to keep his voice down with Sophie and Julian still nearby.

"What else is it?" the Doctor asked back, and there was a mad sort of laugh on his face that troubled Walter. "So long as they don't understand what they have in her, then she has a better chance of living. If they have both of you, then might as well call it a day. They'll have exactly what they want, short of having Sugar handed to them."

"I don't get it, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Gemma would probably hate me for having done this, but I checked your readings back at the clinic on Tregh. The cure in Sugar's blood came to be through generation upon generation of constant progress. But best as I can determine, it first sparked into life from one child, one combination two lines, and you, Walter Reskin, are one of them." The Doctor watched as the realization hit the man like a ton of bricks.

"You're saying… Gemma and I…"

"Sometime in the future, don't ask me when. If I bring you with me to Pelles Three, then they have you both, and they can find a way to reconstitute this cure. Then they won't need either of you anymore. No child. No Sugar. No cure."

"Sugar…" Walter blinked. "She's my…"

"Many, many times granddaughter. It's your choice whether to tell her or not; I would advise 'not.' I need to go, to get to Gemma," he told Walter, leaving it up to him to 'release' him into going without him.

"You'll get her back," Walter spoke confidently, and the Doctor hurried into the TARDIS without another word. Walter stepped back, watching as the ship left without him. "You heard him," he told the other three. "We have to bring everyone else back to Constance's shop before the Doctor returns with Gemma."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	48. A Quirk of the Blood

**"The Class of 2012"**

**48. A Quirk of the Blood**

_The Fields of Pelles Three_

For how idyllic the place had seemed at first glance, suddenly it seemed only idyllic as much as the creepy perfect town in a horror movie did.

They had caught her, fair and square. She'd been hiding behind her rock wall, and the sound of their steps had faded enough to lead her to believe that they had left, walked away. That was until someone had gotten her by the collar and pushed her to the ground, keeping her in place so that she couldn't move or escape.

She couldn't just leave, get away. For one, her vortex manipulator was not with her – and now more than ever she was glad for the choice she'd made to hide it. And then as much as she could appreciate the precariousness of her situation, she knew she shouldn't squander an opportunity to find out more. So she bid her time, even as she knew she'd be paraded out for the Doctor's sake, after the man Arrias had somehow gone and contacted him. These people had made a giant mistake here, and they didn't even realize it yet. They had threatened him by using her, and that just about guaranteed the Doctor would be swooping in at any moment.

The 'any moment' part could not come soon enough. After they had ended their little message to the Doctor back in the Phisto Hub, they had dragged her off to a building where, behind a hidden door, she discovered a room not unlike a research lab or maybe an operating room. Right there her instincts started playing a different tune, and she dug her heels in the ground, trying to free herself from them, but her escorts were not so easily shaken, and they got her kicking and resisting all the way into a chair where she was restrained, hands, feet, and head secured in place. Fighting against those restraints only made them feel tighter.

"Relax, now, there's no need for that," a woman came into the room, wheeling a cart with a series of tubes and needles that Gemma saw out of the corner of her eye.

"Easy for you to say. Somehow anything that requires me to be tied down like this doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence. What are you going to do to me?" The woman turned, with what looked like a large syringe.

"First, I'll need some of your blood."

Gemma would have complimented her on the painlessness of the blood draw, if it wasn't for the whole captivity and bondage factor. Instead she did her best to see everything they did. Having her periphery locked down to wherever her eyes could turn and her head couldn't was the hard part, but what she couldn't see she filled in by her hearing as the woman muttered to herself while testing the blood. Whatever she was finding sounded promising for her, and sometimes even curious. When she got up again, Gemma tensed.

"What do you want now? If it's what I think it is, you'll really need to untie me first."

"Was your mother ill during her pregnancy with you?" the woman asked.

"What?" Gemma frowned. "What does my mother have to do with this?"

"There is a… a disruption of some kind."

"In my blood?"

"In your blood, in you, however you wish to put it. All signs point to a sort of trauma before your birth. I'll ask again…"

"I don't know… I swear, I don't know," she replied, all the while wondering if this had anything to do with the old stories her parents had told her, and what she'd learned herself from her visit to the day when she was born. Something had happened, to her mother, and so to her, too, in a sense, but she didn't see how it could affect anything. "Why do you want to know?" The woman stared at her for a moment in silence.

"I have reason to believe this disruption may have something to do with the cure we have all attempted to find and harvest," the woman spoke in terms and tones that told Gemma all she needed to know as to her prospects on ever being allowed to leave this place. The only way she would get out of this place, barring intervention from the Doctor who was taking a remarkable amount of time to arrive and/or show himself, then she would have to orchestrate her escape on her own.

"This is all you've ever wanted, isn't it?" Gemma rose her voice, hoping it would both keep the other woman distracted and create cover for the sounds of her trying to loosen the binds on her hands. "It's all about the cure, and for what? You don't care about all the lives you've already destroyed and the ones you will destroy by either using the plague yourself or selling it to others who will use it. All you'll care about is the money you'll make and the fact that you'll be immune thanks to this cure," she spoke the word every time like it was loathsome.

The woman looked on the verge of saying something when there was a tone and a voice filled the room.

"We've intercepted an incoming signal," the voice was unmistakably Arrias. "A ship is approaching. We need you here." Without argument, the woman had taken one quick look at Gemma before leaving her.

As soon as she was gone, Gemma wrestled free to her heart's content. Any leeway she gained only made her more determined, until one hand strap had loosened enough for her to slip her hand out. Then she freed her other hand, her chin, and then her feet before moving to stand up from the chair. She was shaky on her legs from the nerves, but in moments she was bolting for the door. The Doctor was coming, she knew. She needed to get to him; she needed to get the vortex manipulator back.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	49. Storming the Fields

_A/N: Hey, look who fell behind again... *sigh* Here come the final 12 chapters of this story. Today's stories will come tomorrow..._

* * *

><p><strong>"The Class of 2012"<strong>

**49. Storming the Fields**

_Inside the TARDIS – earlier_

In the shuffle of the second dozen plus contingent of the day entering his ship, so that they might be reunited with friends past and future, the Doctor had been pulled aside by one of them. He would eventually know her as Jenny, though for some reason she seemed to go out of her way not to look him square in the eye. He hadn't needed very long to identify her for being straight out of Victorian London. She had handed him a small but bulky looking envelope, saying that his counterpart had given her this to give to him, with specific instructions as to when and how its contents should be used.

"You're to open the envelope 'when travelling alone, after the dark,'" Jenny had said, unable to hide her own curiosity for the riddle. The Doctor had pocketed the envelope, and for the time being, had put the thought of it aside as well.

X

The envelope had to relate to their current predicament, he knew, and he'd just about figured out the circumstances of its use when the plan to draw the ships' attention away from Tregh had started coming together. But he couldn't have foreseen this, couldn't have known Gemma would be taken captive like this. Now he was travelling alone to save her, after going to tell her parents, off in the dark of borderlands.

He had taken little time to find where she might be, and he hurried along, a million and one ideas of what he might find in there just fighting for most plausible… Somehow, the idea that Gemma wouldn't be there hadn't been on the short list, or the long one either. He knew she had been there, it was in the air. He was just examining the chair, the restraints, when a woman entered the room. The Doctor looked at her, saw the realization in her that something had gone amiss, much earlier than the fact that a stranger like him was with her.

"Who are you? What did you do with the prisoner?" she asked.

"Prisoner? I saw no prisoner. You're the first person I've encountered actually," he started walking around the room, observing the stations, the panels, consoles… "I had to come in for a landing, went looking for help, and… no one. It's as though the planet is deserted. Well, except for you now… and me… and this prisoner of yours. Where is everyone?"

"That is none of your business."

"No, of course not, you're absolutely right. Tell me now, what is it that you do here?"

She said nothing. For a moment she might have been asleep on her feet for how much she moved. Then she blinked and looked at him, looked around the room. Her eyes seemed to ask why she was there.

"Sir?" she asked the Doctor.

"What is this room, it looks like a lab?"

"It's… You're in the hospital. Can I help you?" she asked. He stepped away from the couples.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine. About so tall, brown hair, brown eyes. She might have had something on her arms, with a disc," he showed his wrist.

"No, I'm sorry. But if she's here, someone will have…" she moved to the window, looking out the Doctor watched her. "Where have they…" She walked out, and he followed.

"I've heard of this place," the Doctor told her. "When I visited the mountains of Tregh." She turned back to him, now not so concerned with the disappearance of her people.

"Tregh?" she asked.

"And the ships above. They told me about this cure, for the Treian, and a child they were seeking."

"You mean the girl, from the Mercer Colony." He nodded. "Then they failed to tell you the whole story. It was a hoax. The girl's blood was examined, whatever claim was made, she was no more singular than you or me."

"I see," the Doctor tipped his head. "What a shame. If that's the end of it, I will go on and search for my friend."

He left the baffled woman, walking back toward the TARDIS. He'd have to try and locate her there.

Thanks to his future self's instructions, he had been able to generate this memory reconstruction. Supposedly its origins would be revealed in time, but for now it didn't matter.

Now, thanks to his implementing of the reconstruction, the signal would travel all along the network, all those who'd played a part in this search, this alliance. And all of them would be left to believe the same thing the woman had just told him. The child Padra had been found to have no bearing on the cure, and as far as they knew, there still was none to be found. Soon they would discover all they'd done, him and his companions. They would find the Treian back in strength, and the cure much more available… It would have no more worth as currency.

On the ships over Tregh, as the signal would infiltrate the crews, one by one, they would be just as confused as the woman on Pelles Three. But then a message would come through, from their captain free of trance. They would be told to depart and make for home. By the developments they'd been made aware of, they had no need to be there any longer. They had no knowledge of how, on the planet below, the Treian were learning of a change coming to their world, an end to this era of illness. Time would tell what they chose to become.

The Doctor would learn of this eventually. For now, what mattered was to do what he'd first come here to do. He needed to find Gemma, to bring her home to her family, and soon to his future self. If he could find her, he would take her and show her wonder upon wonder.

He neared the TARDIS, and only as he walked around the side did he see her, waiting, leaning against the closed doors. She turned when she heard him.

"Good, you made it," she smiled. She looked like the time she'd spent on Pelles Three had worn her out. "We need to stop them, they have a machine, like on Mesphoria, remember…"

"It's done," he promised her. "We can go."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	50. On the Road Back

**"The Class of 2012"**

**50. On the Road Back**

_Inside the TARDIS_

It wasn't until they'd moved to enter the ship that he'd even seen it. "You're hurt," he looked her over. She was holding to her side as she moved up the ramp, her face doing its best to hide how much she was in pain. "What happened?"

"It's nothing. You should have seen me sometimes after dance lessons with Miss Julia," she laughed, but it took some of her breath away, and she wasn't fooling anyone.

"Sit, let me see," he insisted. So she sat down and pulled up her shirt just enough that he'd see what had to be turning into quite the array of bruised tones already.

"I tried to get away when they caught me. It didn't work." When he reached out to touch the sensitive skin, her hand shot out to slap his hand away. "I will scream," she warned.

"I'm not sending you back to them like this. They worry too much as it is," he explained, looking at her. She sighed.

"Just… be careful," she begged. "Maybe keep me talking, to distract me, you know?"

"Did I ever tell you about the time I regrew a hand?" he complied. She nearly leapt out of her skin when he touched the bruise.

"_You_ didn't, but the next one will," she spoke after a beat.

"Amazing the things we can do, after regeneration, yet most of it gets lost in trying to become this new skin we've been given, or accepting our failings in hair color," he looked up at her like she might give him good news.

"I'm not saying a word," she frowned, and he looked back down in disappointment.

"How long have you… and next me…"

"On and off, a few years now," Gemma revealed.

"Why the off?" he wondered.

"Death in the family," was all she would say, and the look in her eyes convinced him not to pry.

"Sorry," he only said, and she gave a sad but thankful smile.

"I'd only just come back, before you, your next you, sent me to Lima," she confessed. He looked surprised, like he was only now seeing the big picture she'd been made the center of. It had been one thing to wonder about her all this time, to be frustrated by her, as he'd tried to figure out who she was and why she was following him, but now she was a real person, with a name, a family, a story… She was Gemma Lucas, and he would one day take her on as his companion.

She was generally vague as to the details of their future together, and he knew it was for good reason, that he should admire her for holding to it, but all he could think about was how much she had been willing to dedicate of herself to this. She wouldn't have known the whole of it when she'd started, she couldn't, but she had agreed.

"Doctor, keep talking," she pleaded, and he realized he'd gone silent.

"Sorry, yes. You're right," he sat up.

"Is it over? The Treian, the plague, the cure… Padra?"

"Some, yes. Some, no. Some… maybe."

"In other words, you don't know," Gemma tempted a look back down at her side. She hadn't felt anything the last few seconds, and now she saw why. The Doctor had stuck a great lilac colored patch on over her bruise. It was covered entirely, and it felt as though her pain had evaporated completely the moment the bruise had gone out of sight.

"Where did you get that?" she asked, testing by reaching down and prodding with one finger. The patch felt squishy under her touch, but there was no pain, and she was breathing at ease again.

"In my pocket," the Doctor declared.

"Of course," she smirked, letting her shirt down.

"Just don't leave it on more than a day, or you'll turn that color all over, and the little fella will call you home."

"The little… This is a… a-a living thing?" she looked at the patch again.

"Come now, they're harmless. I call that one Freddie," the Doctor beamed. Gemma slowly let go of the hem again. So long as 'the little fella' kept doing what it did, she could deal.

"I'll take good care of it," she promised.

"Good. Now here we are," he announced, flipping a lever by stretching wide toward the console. He almost fell when they jolted. "The Phisto Hub. We've made it."

She was more nervous than she'd realized. Would they be upset with her for leaving? Even if she did have a good reason… Would they hate that she'd gone without telling them, especially the part where she had envisioned the possibility she might not get to come back…

"When this is over," she spoke, looking to the strap on her wrist. They had removed the disc, and she'd almost expected for him to keep the vortex manipulator, too. "When this is over and I go back to the next you, I… Walter and I…"

"You want to bring him," he guessed.

"I tried to stay away from him, for so long."

"Why would you ever do a thing like that?"

"Because… because he's from the past, my past, and I'm from his future, we're never going to be able to make sense of it."

"Well, that's love for you, Gemma Lucas. As for the time thing, I would have thought you'd travelled with me long enough to know it only becomes a problem if you let it."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	51. Turned Upside Down

**"The Class of 2012"**

**51. Turned Upside Down**

_The Phisto Hub_

The Doctor had left the hub in a state of quietness, of rotation in the marketplace. He returned to it, with Gemma behind him, to find they might well have been on the brink of chaos. There were no clients in sight, the Doctor suspected any of those still on the hub had either been covertly invited to depart, or shielded from any knowledge on other events. That the TARDIS had been able to materialize on the premises was the only way they could have gotten in. They had to find the others; they should all be back in the Phisto Hub now.

X

Artie and Jenny had transported themselves back when they'd been told to, and as spooked out as they'd been by the dark edge of the hub, the scene they'd returned to made them miss the dark. The masters were attempting to regain control of their contracts, which should have been easy, but things had changed. The slaves had made a turn, and they weren't as compliant as they had once been.

"Hold on," Jenny told Artie, grabbing on to his chair and pushing him so they might get out of sight. At every turn it became clear maybe there was no good place to hide.

"Arthur Abrams!" a voice shouted, and Artie waved for Jenny to stop. He knew that voice, but it couldn't be her, could it?

"Look, the TARDIS," Jenny turned his chair and hurried them toward it, barely blinking at the fact that, standing at its open doors was the Doctor, his Doctor, the one who'd once pretended to be his mother. She looked just as happy to see him, though she reserved this joy for until after they were safely behind the ship's doors. Even there, they had plenty more to focus on.

They were all there, the rest of the Glee Club, and everyone else the Doctor here had brought over to help them. They hadn't all seen each other in the same room for only hours but it felt like weeks.

"What's going on?" Artie asked. "Where's Walter, and Gemma, and the Doc… I mean…"

"Walter stayed back to wait, and the other two, I believe, shouldn't be far away at this time," she knowingly promised. "What's going on now is I need to return everyone I 'borrowed' back to their own times." Artie looked to Jenny.

"But you saw it out there, it can't be over," Jenny insisted. It had been a recurring comment every time the Doctor had picked any one of them up.

"No, it isn't over, I agree. But it is for you. There is no need to keep you there any longer, and I'm not going to. The rest of you are my predecessor's responsibility, but this lot…"

So the drop offs had begun, ushering in many goodbyes. Gillian said goodbye to Mike and Tina, Rada did with Sam, and Brin with Blaine, all of them wishing they could say the things that were truly on their minds, but knowing they couldn't.

The cats had said their farewells to Brittany and Santana, promising to give their best to their brothers and sisters along with their parents. Then Corius and Della had gone, following Kurt's lead in giving off the impression of detachment they had to uphold. Savelyn left Mercedes with one great hug, promising to tell her parents all about what they'd done together that day.

Dew gladly returned to his new Earth life, once he said his goodbyes to Quinn, while Jaime insisted on introducing Puck to the woman of his life when they dropped him off.

Artie was allowed to take a moment and see Vastra and Strax when they'd returned Jenny. They were exactly as he remembered them, and now for having seen his Doctor again on top of it all, it did finally feel like their great big adventure was coming to an end.

When it had come to returning Sophie and Julian, as much as they'd kept quiet since leaving the Phisto Hub, it changed now. They didn't want to just go, not when they hadn't seen Gemma, not when they didn't know that she was okay. The Doctor promised them that, even as they spoke, his past self and Gemma had made it back to the Phisto Hub, and as soon as everything was over, they would come back to see them, at home. There was nothing more to say, but thankfully they had stopped fighting the decision.

The TARDIS landed, and then as they were moving to the door… "Wait!" Rachel had hurried up to them, and after a beat, she'd hugged Sophie. It had taken the woman's breath away, but then she closed her arms around her, too, and she held her near, knowing she'd never get another chance, whether Rachel understood this or not. "Thank you," Rachel had said, when she'd moved this hug to Julian next. "Thanks, for what you did for me back there."

"Don't mention it," Julian told her, sensing his wife's speechlessness.

After they'd gone, there was only one more stop for them to make before rounding back and leaving the Glee Club – and Constance, who'd come along – back at the hub, to find Eleven.

At the Mercer Colony, Nira begged for Sugar to come and see, to walk the ground of her home world, if only one last time. They had all followed, and Sugar had proudly pointed out her old home when she saw it. She hadn't forgotten it or its location, and that had meant more to her than anyone could realize.

She had said goodbye to Nira and, maybe, she had said goodbye to Padra, to the life she'd lost. Now she had to put her aside and try to find Padra in the person she had become. The Earth girl, from Lima, Ohio. She'd returned to Mercer, and she was glad, but now what she wanted most of all was her home, her family…

The TARDIS landed, and the Glee Club and Constance stepped off one by one. The last to go was Artie, and now the Doctor had taken the time to hug him.

"So, where do you fit in with all this? You had to come from after it was all over, right? You know if we'll do okay, if we'll get to go home, all of us."

"What I do or do not know is of no matter to you, Arthur," she assured him with a tip of the head. "Now you need to go and find out for yourself." He had watched her return to her ship, and she had disappeared once more from his life, he felt, for good.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	52. Two Sides

**"The Class of 2012"**

**52. Two Sides**

_The Phisto Hub_

They had to do something. They had to find the Doctor and Gemma, yes, but they hadn't been brought all the way over here just to watch him and they knew that now more than ever. They could work together and figure this out.

"I think I have an idea," Finn spoke up. "They could work this out if they got a chance to talk, right?" He looked to Constance.

"Finn, they own us, we're Contracts."

"Then rewrite them," he insisted. "One representative for each side. You could speak for the slaves, couldn't you?" She hesitated.

"Me? Why…"

"You've been helping us all this time, and I saw you with Remy and those guys. I think… they'd listen to you, and they'd want you speaking for them."

"I didn't even know before today…" she shook her head. "Remy…"

"You've been here longer than him, right? I think you know who we should be talking to, too, I'm sure you do. Which of the masters…"

"Contractor Belteri," Constance answered in a beat, then sighed. "If we can find him in all that…"

"Hey, guys, look!" Brittany pointed all of a sudden, and everyone turned to see what she'd seen.

"Walter!" Gemma called as she and the Doctor came running toward them. When Walter saw her, his heart bounced back up from the pit of his stomach, and he ran to meet her. For an instant everything else, the Phisto Hub, the masters, the slaves, all was forgotten. He caught her on the fly, lifting her into his arms and well off the ground. The Doctor didn't have a chance to get a word in, begging for Gemma to be careful with Freddie the patch, as the happy couple was now kissing.

"You're okay?" Walter finally asked, when he put Gemma down. She still held to his arms. He was touching her face, noticing wherever there may have been dirt or a scratch on her.

"I'm okay," she confirmed, still feeling the effects of the patch creature on her side. "I'm so sorry I had to leave like that, there was no time to explain and…" He cut her off with another kiss, and she knew she didn't have to worry about him being mad anymore. "Where are my parents? I have a feeling I'll need to do a lot more explaining with them," she sighed.

"Oh, they've gone home," Walter told her.

"What?" Gemma was surprised at that.

"The Doctor, the other one, your one, came and took everyone home except the Glee Club and me. They weren't needed here anymore, and it was safer that way," he went on to explain.

"Oh… Right… Good, that's good," she nodded. She knew it had been the right thing to do, but she couldn't help but feel a bit… cheated. The Doctor, her Doctor, had been here, and she hadn't been able to see her, after being away all this time, only communicating through notes both detailed and cryptic. And then her parents, to just snatch them away from her without getting a chance to talk… But they'd be safe, she knew, and in the end it really was the thing that she needed to know mattered above all else.

The Doctor had found out about his successor's swooping in and carrying his lot back home from the kids of the Glee Club. He, too, had some uncertainty as to how he should react to this, but he guessed he would have done the same thing. He would have sent them all home actually, which could only mean they still had a part to play here.

"Doctor, we had an idea," Rachel told him. "Well, Finn had an idea, and I'm with him," she nodded, looking back to her boyfriend, who gave her a smile.

"There's a guy," Finn turned back to Constance, having forgotten the name.

"Contractor Belteri," she reminded him.

"Right. If we can find him, Constance will talk for the slaves, and he can be on behalf of the masters."

"A negotiation," the Doctor considered it. He thought about the last time he'd had two sides discuss a sensitive matter of this magnitude. It had been headed in the right direction, and then… and then…

Before he could say any further, a voice had come booming over loudspeakers.

"All Contracts are ordered to return to barracks immediately for an official count. If any fail to make the count, all will be sanctioned. You have until next bell."

The voice ceased. The Doctor had turned to look at Constance all this time as the man spoke. He saw how it affected her, and it didn't bring about a whole lot of confidence.

"What happens if they don't make the count?" he asked her. She looked at him, then turned her back to him, pulled her hair aside, tugging her shirt enough for him to see a light mark there.

"When we are catalogued, the sensor is injected." He looked.

"A tracker?" he asked.

"No, not at all. Binds with the spine. If they activate the sanction order, all of us within range will be… paralyzed, subdued," she shivered, remembering the last time.

"Doctor?" Sugar spoke up at that, panicked. "Does that mean… I-I have one of those?" she pointed to her back. He had forgotten. He looked back to Constance.

"You said within range. Of what?" he asked. She pointed to the top of a spire tower pitched over the marketplace.

"Right. I'll go…"

"You can't," Gemma told him. "You need to find this Contractor man, get them talking. You need to be there, you know it. If you can put an end to it, then it might not come to… that," she looked up. He knew what she was suggesting, and for having only just gone to bring her back, he couldn't help being concerned.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I can do it," she promised.

"Of that, I'm sure. But you're not going alone."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	53. To New Heights

**"The Class of 2012"**

**53. To New Heights**

_The Phisto Hub_

Nine went seeking Contractor Belteri, while nine more went to find the spire tower. Constance led the Doctor and Finn, along with Rachel, Mike, Tina, Mercedes, Kurt, and Blaine, while the rest had remained with Gemma. They were all to keep in touch via Constance's comm devices, keeping each other updated should important developments occur.

The message over the loudspeaker had done one thing in their favor. When they went looking for Belteri, the masters were easy to spot, and Constance had pointed the man out – if he could be called that.

"He's a kid," Finn frowned.

"Fourteen years old by your count," Constance told him. "Contractors are selected and trained from childhood. Most will be no less ruthless than men or women three or four times their age. But I think we can get through to him."

"So how do we get him away from the others?" Rachel asked.

"One of you girls flash him or something," Kurt pointed toward the boy. When both Mercedes and Rachel smacked him upside the head, he moved aside. "I was only kidding… kind of," he shrugged, he rubbed at the back of his head.

"Play along, okay?" Finn said then, grabbing Constance by the arm and pulling her along. He could hear the Doctor calling him back, but he spoke to Constance instead. "Fight back, like you're trying to get away," he said, and right away Constance was doing just that. "Hey you, Contractor!" he called to Belteri. The boy marched toward them, his posture trained into him as much as anything else. "This one, one knows where their leader is. She says she won't talk if you're all there. You need to talk to her, just you."

"I won't!" Constance tried to get her arm free, though as it was her only one, all she could do was pull and pull, which would only hurt her shoulder. But she had feet, both of them metal, and those would pack a punch if she was actually in danger. Belteri knew this, and as he watched the pair before him, he pointed to them to follow him away and into an empty building.

"What's really going on?" he asked. "Where is this leader?"

"You're looking at her." Belteri turned, finding the Doctor sitting in the corner, with the others of their group.

"How'd you know he'd come here?" Tina asked the Doctor. He didn't answer, instead pointing to Constance and Belteri.

"Sit. There is much to discuss."

X

At the spire tower, Gemma and Walter were staring up at the top of it, as much as they could see. Behind them, they knew Artie, Sugar, Brittany, Santana, Quinn, Puck and Sam would be doing the same.

"Dude, you'll never get up there," Puck was the first to say a thing.

"Encouraging as ever, Noah," Gemma sighed. "Now shut up. I'm trying to count."

"Count what, your lucky stars?"

"Santana, also shut up," Gemma didn't turn. "I only need to calculate… trajectory." No one spoke now, but only in an attempt to figure out what she meant. Walter cracked it.

"That's insane, Gemma, you can't."

"Honey, I love you, but right now I could do with a bit more support."

"What if that thing misses… again?" They figured it out soon after that: she meant to use that thing on her wrist to get up the spire tower. "Got it!" she tapped at the numbers in a flash, and the next moment she was gone. They craned their necks again, squinting.

"She made it!" Sugar blurted out happily, and Santana smacked her arm, shushing her.

"Okay, that was actually kind of impressive," Puck admitted.

"But now she needs to turn that thing off, doesn't she?" Sam asked, bringing them back to reality.

Up on the spire, Gemma was glad they couldn't see her face twitch or hear her voice do the same. She had very little space to stand, and if she allowed herself to look down, she would be done. If they saw her tool to deal with this thing was a broken sonic screwdriver, they would call her an idiot. She wasn't half sure they wouldn't be right either, of course, but it was all she had, that and the anti sonic. At least the thing wasn't unknown,, the thing she had to disable. There'd been a schematic in the Doctor's notebook all this time, a thing she was meant to learn, to understand.

Actually looking at the thing and crossing what she'd learned with how to disable it were two astronomically different in the beginning, while she was still too aware of her location. But then she got on her knees and scooted closer, fishing in her pocket for her tools, broken as they were. What would she do? What would her Doctor do? "Anti sonic…" she told herself. "Countermands whatever the sonic does, so… Sonic says go… Anti says stop," she breathed, aiming the two objects. She had nothing to hold on to if anything went sideways… including her.

For a short time it seemed to her as though she was getting somewhere. Then in the next moment she saw the thing about to surge, and it zapped her. It didn't touch her, but Freddie the patch took it all, and then he was shrivelling away. For how much he'd kept her pain away, now it was back full force. She pulled up her shirt, and there was the bruise again, darker than ever. "Not good," she winced, carefully letting the shirt back down. It was a brief set back, but now she'd learn from her mistakes. She'd keep working.

Except it zapped her again. The second short nearly made her lose the anti sonic. The third caught her in the shoulder, and now a numb sensation was gaining down her arm, making it hard to hold her tools steady.

"Not giving up," she grunted, frowning. She'd keep at this as long as she could breathe.

X

The negotiations weren't going well. Belteri had the potential for motivation, but it was still having trouble rising out from under his duty to his teachings. And whenever he spoke to her, Constance had to fight the reflex of subservience. They were running in circles, as much as the others were trying to telegraph silent support. The Doctor was doing his best to steer her in the right direction, give her pointers, but there was only so much he could do. She had to do the rest on her own.

"Doctor!" Santana burst into the room then, with Brittany on her heels.

"Gemma's in trouble, you have to help her, please," Brittany went on. At this, their classmates had scrambled to go with them. The Doctor had started to turn and join them, but first he looked back to the slave and the master.

"Carry on, both of you. I am confident you will reach a common ground," he pointed at them before running after the others.

Even as they approached, they could see her up on the spire. 'Up' didn't seem accurate though. She was crumpled down on the spire, and they couldn't be entirely sure she was moving.

"How did she get up there?" Mike asked the obvious question.

"That thing on her arm," Brittany revealed. "She used to that."

"I don't think she can use it to come down now," the Doctor breathed, pointing his sonic toward the spire tower, hoping he could get any inkling as to his would-be companion. He was very much aware of the fact that anything could happen at this point, that she could perish before ever making it back to his successor… he just chose not to believe it.

"Doctor!" Walter came to him. "Please, you have to get her down from there, something's wrong, she…" he looked back up when he saw the Doctor's face shift.

Gemma had moved. She'd moved, and she wasn't _not_ crooked, but she was doing something, something they could almost feel was working. But seconds later, they couldn't even think about it.

Because seconds later she'd tilted sideways, and then she'd gone plummeting from the spire tower.

Some had screamed, others stared in shocked silence. But all, all had seen that moment where she should have hit the ground, and instead disappeared into thin air. After that, silence reigned.

Gemma Lucas was missing.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	54. Leverage

**"The Class of 2012"**

**54. Leverage**

_The Phisto Hub_

All over the Phisto Hub, everywhere a slave had run compliant to the barracks, everywhere they tried to hide, thinking they might escape detection, there had been a moment, a feeling… If given long enough , having known about the trigger under their skins, they could just about sense it, like a constant grazing, air raising. But quite suddenly, it was brought to an end, with a release that came about like that first deep breath after a stifling day.

They looked to one another, wherever they stood. They looked to one another, and they knew. They didn't have to worry about their masters holding that threat over their heads anymore. And that was good for one more reason: they could stand once more.

But this rising wasn't restricted to the Phisto Hub. Not even Constance had understood it when she'd pointed them to the spire tower. The Phisto Hub was, after all, the heart of this entire track enterprise. It had power enough to relay with all those other worlds where they had settled their holds, it controlled them. It controlled the power to their own towers. So when the central tower was disabled, the connection broke. And when the connection broke, it was all those other towers, too, that lost their hold over their slaves. Constance had felt her own trigger power down, and looking at the young Contractor as he pulled back his sleeve and read the disruption on the device clasped all up his forearm, she saw his concerns as clear as day.

"Something wrong, Contractor?" she asked, sitting up. He looked at her. He looked into her violet eye.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I did nothing. My… friends did that," she smiled. "What I want to know how is what _you_ will do, Belteri." He stood.

"You will address me as Contractor Be…" She stood, too. She towered over him.

"I will address you as I see fit, Belteri. Look around you and think fast about where you wish to stand when this day is done, because if there's one thing I know now it's that we will not go back to the old ways. Those times are done, understand?"

"The Phisto Hub is not yours to…"

"Mine? Yes. Yes, it is. It is all of ours. You made it ours when you brought us here, and made us take care of it. We know it more than any of you. And one more thing you Contractors, and Sellers, and Tellers don't do: You don't care about it. The hub… You care about your business and no more. We stood in submission all these years, and all because we knew better than to put everyone else at risk," she pointed to her back. "That's over now. No one will take a knee for you," she stared him down, and Belteri slowly sat.

"We will not serve," he looked up at her. She sat down.

"Do you think we want to take your choice away from you? That _is_ what you do though, isn't it? I chose you to treat with because I thought you'd see better than most the chance we've got. You're not cruel, Belteri. They haven't made you like them yet, you can't let them."

"I _am_ a Contractor. What makes you think you can say I'm not…"

"You saved my leg." He looked down. "You thought I didn't know?"

Two rotations past, there had been a client, and when Constance had seen the way the masters looked at her, she knew… They'd had those same looks when they'd come for her arm. They wanted to sell her leg out from under her. She had panicked, as was well to be expected. Right to the very end, she'd been sure they would take it. And then Belteri had come about, telling them a Seller had tracked down a leg for the client, a better leg, one they could ask more for. The Contractors had gone for the deal, and that had been the end of it.

"The Seller. I've seen him before, always with you. Always does as you ask, always you. He's your brother, isn't he?" Belteri sat up.

"My grandson, actually. Someday. I told him to find an alternative. I didn't see the benefit in letting them do to you what the Office would have done without that leg." He was right with that. If she couldn't stand, couldn't serve, then she was still a Contract, and they would find whatever task they could think to put on her.

"Thank you… Contractor Belteri," she smiled, something she'd never done in the presence of a master. He only nodded. "We do not want to make you serve," she set the record straight. "But we don't want to serve you either. You would be surprised how many of us aren't looking to leave the hub. We want to thrive, as much as… alright, perhaps not as much as you. Except we do, only for different reasons."

"The hub…" he was confused.

"The hub will stand. With changes." For the first time now, she felt, he was looking at her with a new interest: he wasn't seeing her as below him.

"What changes?" he asked.

"We will not be property. We will not submit. We will not spend our days sat around a statue. We will be recognized. You will no longer Contract hostages, but you may sanction those clients who fail to meet agreements made, within reason."

"Suppose we agree to all this…"

"I'm not finished," Constance interrupted him. "And this one is one of the most important. In light of this situation, the plague versus the cure, it's come to our attention there is a certain class of clients it would be in everyone's best interest we no longer serve. We will not tend to those who wish to cause harm with the items secured through the hub. We can do so much better with the power of the hub. Don't you agree?" He breathed.

"Yes." She smiled. This was a start.

"Then we need to let them know."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	55. All Clear

**"The Class of 2012"**

**55. All Clear**

_The Phisto Hub_

The slaves had emerged out of barracks and hiding both, and the masters knew. The tide had turned. It could have been just on the verge of erupting into bloodshed. Then a voice resonated over the loudspeakers that silenced them all at once.

"Contracts, stand down! As of this moment, an agreement has been reached," Constance's voice was clear all around.

"Contractors, Sellers, Tellers, you will not touch any of them. They are no longer yours to command," Belteri's voice came next.

"Anyone, on either side, who defies this request will be punished in consequence. Let it be ended today. The old ways will die out."

There would be more work to be done, naturally. The message would connect with a number of them, they had to hope, but there would be plenty, majority of them on the Contractors' side, who would not be so keen. But that was for another day, and for the people of the hub alone.

Under the spire tower, the message had reached few if any. They had just watched Gemma fall and disappear from sight moments before. When the shock had worn off, they had hurried to the spot where she should have touched ground. There was no sign of her. No body, no disruption. With everything that had been happening around them, it just didn't seem possible she'd be anywhere else. The entire lack of her left them feeling a streak of ice up their spines.

"Could she have used that… that thing, to transport herself somewhere else?" Artie asked.

"I don't know, I…" the Doctor turned, dashing for the TARDIS. Pushing through the doors, he pulled the psychic paper from his pocket and tossed it to the first of them that he saw, which was Rachel.

"What's that?" she asked, opening it and seeing the blank white square.

"Psychic paper. She knows how to use it, she may attempt to reach me through it." It was the last he said to them for a few minutes after that, though he talked plenty to himself, muttering as he tapped at the controls and scanned the screen. They could only guess he was trying to locate her, whether here or anywhere else. If there was a way, he would find it.

"I don't think he's doing too good," Sugar whispered to the others as they waited. She wasn't looking at the Doctor. Walter had been lost in his own head ever since Gemma had disappeared, so much so that Sugar had taken him by the arm and walked him to the TARDIS when the Doctor had run off, or else she didn't think he would have left that spot.

How many times had he lost her and gotten her back that day? It felt like the entire day had been working extra hard to tell him he was always going to end up losing her, so he might as well quit trying. He couldn't, he wouldn't… but how far could he really hope before it became that there was no getting her back.

"He'll find her, he has to," Puck promised, tapping Walter's shoulder before looking back to the Doctor.

"She knew…" Walter spoke flatly. "She tried to stay away from me so we wouldn't…"

"Puck's right, come on," Santana shook her head. "Isn't he? Doctor?" Whether he'd heard her question or not was doubtful, but then the Doctor had struck the sides of the consoles with what sounded like the most anger or frustration they'd ever heard out of him. Now he stood there, shoulders sinking.

"Doctor?" Rachel carefully asked. He looked at her, his future companion's grandmother. Had he just lost her a granddaughter? "What do we do now?"

"Now? Now… I'm taking you home, that's what we're doing now." As expected, this had caused an uproar, insisting that it wasn't right, that they couldn't just abandon Gemma. "It's done," he declared, silencing them. "She did what needed to be done."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked.

"It means I can't find her. Whether she's alive or dead, until she manifests somehow…" he breathed out. Rachel looked down to the psychic paper. "Don't ever think that I would… ever… abandon her. Not ever. But I do know she would want all of you back where you belong. That's home. Lima, Ohio." They were quiet.

"I'm staying," Walter spoke. They looked at him. The Doctor went around the console.

"Walter…"

"She might come back here, right?" he sounded more aware than he had in the last several minutes, and he could see the Doctor couldn't disagree with him. "If you find her before that, then… You come and get me."

"Why would you…"

"We were getting ready to go with you. The other you… We had our bags, in my car, ready to go. Now she's gone, and I can't just sit around, waiting, and the way I see it, those people out there will need all the help they can get. She'd want to do that, so… I will, for her," he nodded. "Please, find her."

There was no changing his mind, it was clear, so before any of the kids could go and get any ideas, he'd let Walter exit the TARDIS, borrowing his phone to enable it for contact back with him, and then he watched the man walk off, back into the marketplace.

The Doctor shut the doors, and soon they were in flight, with no turning back. The fourteen boys and girls Gemma had worked with all these months were now staring at him, not a word among them. They might have gone on about how they hadn't said goodbye to Constance, or Remy or any of the others, or that they wondered how the Treian were doing, or any other thing. Instead, what they would retain was the abrupt end of their adventures, where the Doctor, in their opinion, had given up. All their hopes and expectations had soured.

No one regretted it more than the Doctor. He should have known better, prepared more… somehow. What if he couldn't find her? How long would it be before he finally just went and took Walter home alone?

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	56. Disheartening

**"The Class of 2012"**

**56. Disheartening**

_Inside the TARDIS_

The sounds of the TARDIS had never felt so loud as they did as the Doctor directed his ship back to the lot outside William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, in June 2012, the day of graduation. It almost didn't matter anymore that they were aboard a ship that had just transported them through time and space. They had briefly held to the possibility that the Doctor might suddenly change his mind and take them to scour the universe as long as they had to in order to find their teacher. Now they knew he wouldn't, just like they knew that she wouldn't be their teacher anymore. Even if it wasn't that she was lost, she wouldn't have turned up again in September. But they could have said goodbye.

When the TARDIS landed, they looked to the Doctor, one last chance to change course.

"Don't forget your gowns," he pointed to the stack of red fabric. They picked them up, slipping them back on while the non-graduates watched.

"So that's it then?" Puck asked, making no effort to hide how angry he was. "All those months she was with us, but I guess that doesn't matter to you?" The Doctor didn't reply, didn't see the point. He had nothing new to say that would change the boy's mind. He needed to be upset at someone and the Doctor didn't see a way to pass it to anyone else. "Right," Puck turned and opened the doors, marching off without another word. Kurt followed Blaine, too, Mike, Tina, Sam, Finn, Rachel, Santana, Brittany… Mercedes hesitated, but she went. The last three were Quinn, Artie, and Sugar. All three in their own rights found it harder to just walk away.

"Are you sure there's nothing we can do?" Quinn asked, not out of anger or frustration. "School's out, it's summer… We could be gone for the next two months and say we went to Europe or something." It did get a smile out of him, and he hugged her, but she knew the answer before he said it.

"I'm glad you're alright, Quinn," he told her. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to keep you that way."

"I know," she nodded, reaching over to fix his bowtie. "You'll find her. I'm proof enough that you don't let go easy, do you?" She had to take a quick look around before leaving the ship. She knew it was very likely to be her last time seeing it.

Artie and Sugar weren't making any move to leave. The Doctor gave them a look, which got him nothing. "We've been through this…"

"I can't go yet, remember?" Sugar told him. "I need to go and talk to the old you, with Rose…"

"It won't be now," the Doctor shook his head. "And yes, I'm sure."

"Oh," she frowned. "Well… am I okay now? I mean… Are people still going to come looking for me?"

"No," the Doctor promised her that. "You're, if you don't mind me saying, as ordinary as ordinary comes. I wouldn't go telling just anyone you've come from the future, but I can think of a couple people who might want to know." The fear flared on fast. "It'll be fine," he reminded her. She breathed out, nodding, and the Doctor had another hug. She'd never thought this day would come, but to think she didn't have to be afraid anymore, that she could tell her parents the truth…

Artie remained last of all, staring back at the Doctor in silence. "You shouldn't be going on your own. She told me that once. So the way I see it, you need me." He was not moving.

"I met you when you were a child, didn't I?" the Doctor guessed, approaching him. "Or I will meet you… when you were little. We both will, Gemma and I? I can see it in you," he pointed to the boy's face. "We've lived in there, as long as we did for Padra… Sugar. It's hard letting go…"

"I know who she is," Artie told him. "Gemma, I know. She told me, about her, and Rachel," he went on. "Then I'm going to be in their lives. I can't say I knew all along and I didn't try harder to do something for her."

"I'll send a sign," the Doctor told him. "I promise. When I've found Gemma, when we've returned for Walter. I won't leave you all wondering."

"But you won't take me," Artie filled in.

"I'm afraid not," the Doctor replied honestly. "For the same reason I'm not taking any of the others." They left on a hug, too. Artie wanted the Doctor to leave on his search for Gemma with hope on his side, and after the parting he'd had from the rest of the club, he needed all he could get.

Rolling back into the school parking lot, after all they'd been through, only to find it was not just the same day but also very nearly exactly the same time as when they'd left was a tiny bit disconcerting, but then he turned and looked on as the TARDIS disappeared. It was all over… mostly over…

The others hadn't wandered off very far yet, and he knew they'd looked, too, when the TARDIS had started to take off. No matter what they had and hadn't said, they were going to miss it all, the Doctor, the ship, the travels. They would regret leaving him in anger.

Artie rejoined Sugar and Quinn, who were halfway between him and the bigger group still.

"What do we do now?" he asked the girls when he reached them.

"Honestly, I have no idea," Quinn shook her head. "Even if I wasn't exhausted from today, I don't think I could pull through the graduation dinner my mother's planning for tonight."

"Oh…" Sugar breathed.

"I'll go," Quinn shrugged. "She'll be devastated if I…"

"No, that's not what… It's Walter's car," she pointed. "What are they going to do when he doesn't come for it? They'll look into where he is, his family will think he's missing."

"Hey, Puck!" Artie called to him, waving him over.

"What are you doing?" Quinn asked Artie.

"You know you thought about it, too. We'll get in there and move it, stash it somewhere," he moved up along the side. When Puck came up, Artie turned to him in a hurry. "The trunk, get it open."

"Why?" he asked, but Artie motioned: just do it. So he did, and when Artie looked, he knew. The Doctor had kept his promise. "There's nothing here."

"Yeah, exactly," Artie told him. "No bags, on the backseat, front seat, the trunk… They left them here…"

"If they're gone, then they must have come for them," Sugar understood, smiling. "The Doctor, Walter, and Gemma."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	57. Goodbye, Hello

**"The Class of 2012"**

**57. Goodbye, Hello**

_Inside the TARDIS – months ago_

"Gemma, the vortex manipulator's been reactivating, I've already input…"

"It's already done, all of this."

"Yes…"

"Then you already know if you'll see me or not. You already knew I'd say yes, you've seen me do it."

"I did."

"So why not tell me?" Gemma asked, surprised at her own annoyance. But then she'd already travelled with the Doctor long enough to know. "Right, rules, timelines…"

"Look at me, following rules, when did I start doing that?" she tried for a laugh.

"Then you know if I make it out of this," Gemma went on. Now she had the Doctor's attention. She also had a functioning vortex manipulator. "No," she frowned. "Actually, don't tell me." In the next second, she'd hit the button, and she was gone.

There was still that sort of sizzle left in the air after she'd gone, and in that silence, the Doctor breathed. The further Gemma had interrogated her, the harder it had become to go about as though there was nothing she was trying so hard not to say. But now she'd gone, and the Doctor could admit it, if only to herself.

"I don't know."

She turned to head off in search of a book… it felt like the thing to do, while she waited for…

She was not often so vocally surprised, but when she turned, having just seen Gemma disappear, only to have her appear in front of her on the other side, the Doctor yelped. "Gemma…" she breathed, looking her over. She was hurt, clearly so, and barely keeping to her feet, so that when she'd pitched forward, the Doctor had moved to catch her and carefully lower her to the ground.

"It's alright now," she hushed. "I've got you, that's it… You're back, see?" she pointed up and around them. Gemma's eyes were not focusing just yet, still rolling, processing.

"Doctor?" she spoke, weak.

"Two hearts, Time Lady, in the flesh," she smiled.

"I… I lost Freddie," Gemma went on, and the Doctor pulled up her shirt to see.

"No, see, the little bugger's here. Loyal type that one. Must have found you again, which got you the boost to stand again… even if only in that place," she took in the other, new injuries. It had been hundreds of years for her; she had never forgotten.

"Good… Freddie…" Gemma chuckled, winced. "Can't believe I made it… Last ditch… When I fell…"

"You be quiet now. You need your rest; the stories can wait, and I'll listen to them all, I…"

"Walter… Where…" Gemma started to ask, and the Doctor quickly put her to sleep.

It took three days for the sleep and care as tendered by the Doctor for Gemma to be sufficiently recovered to learn of what happened since her fall. She learned about the negotiations' outcome, and how the Doctor had tried and failed to find her initially. She explained how she, or rather he – at the time – had decided to bring all the kids back to McKinley, to their displeasure but Gemma's relief. Then there was Walter, who had stayed to wait for her, back on the Phisto Hub.

"Just as well he didn't have to wait for you as long as I did," the Doctor could barely disguise her own longstanding worries. "I looked for you, I swear I did. And then years passed, years, centuries… I regenerated, lived some more… and I found… I met you again," she smiled.

"All this time we've known each other, this time since I… met you… You knew it would all lead to that moment," Gemma felt now as though this was the first and only conversation they'd ever had where they were on equal ground. Now they were starting a new era in their partnership. "We need to get to the Phisto Hub."

X

It had been five days since he'd watched the TARDIS depart. In that time, Walter had been assisting Constance, Belteri, and the others as they worked to implement the new system, which was still a far cry from functioning, but they had progressed, and that was nothing to ignore.

There had been some altercations, every day, but they were constantly gaining ground. Walter had just seen a pair of them, formerly master and slave, sitting and talking at peace, and he'd thought 'I wish she could see this.' Then, he heard it, the familiar sound he'd just been straining to hear all this time. There was the blue box, perched on what remained of the pedestal where the slaves' statue had stood.

He dashed toward it, leaping up on to the pedestal and up to the doors. His heart was likely to burst out of his chest. She had to be in there, didn't she? The Doctor wouldn't just come like that, unless… unless… He'd never dreaded a closed door more, and then they had opened, revealing a woman, not Gemma, but… "D… Doctor?"

"Hello again, Mr. Reskin. I believe you know the lady?" she stepped aside, revealing her companion standing at the console.

They had both been days apart, whether three or five, and whether they'd been asleep through most of it or not, and now it was done, they were reunited. Walter had taken the few short strides to get to her, touched her arm, confirming her reality, and when she'd beamed, her eyes welling up at the sight of him, he'd pulled her into his arms, where she gladly closed the embrace around him. The Doctor decided to give them their privacy, stepping out to get a look at how everyone was faring since their departure.

It had taken a long while for either of them to talk, sharing the stories of their time apart, and once they'd started it had been easy to get lost in the subject, but sooner or later, there was 'the other thing.'

"If you decided you didn't want to do the travelling thing anymore, I…" Gemma started to say, and feeling he was near to protest, "Let me finish. I was about to say… We could stay. We'll make it work, your family, mine, your time, my time… I know we can. I'm not doing temporary, not with you," she insisted. He kissed her.

"I want the travels," he promised. "Like we said. Now that I've seen…" Now she kissed him, more so.

When the Doctor returned, a nervous Gemma had asked her if Walter might come with them. The Time Lady had approached, observing them both quietly before looking to Walter.

"Well, now… We better fetch your belongings."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	58. A Note in Blue

**"The Class of 2012"**

**58. A Note In Blue**

_June 2012 - Lima, Ohio_

The days that followed graduation, after they had been returned from their adventures with the Doctor on the TARDIS, they had not seen much of one another. They mostly kept to themselves, giving their energy to anything from looking forward to their senior year coming up in the fall, or to whatever life held for them now that high school was over, whether it was college or anything else outside of it. They spent time with their families, maybe more than they usually did. They did everything but talk about what they'd all been through together, because they still needed to process it. In the heat of the moment it had been necessary for them to keep moving forward, no matter what, but now… They had seen pain and suffering, illness, violence… They had seen worlds they would never have suspected existed at all. They'd reconnected with old friends and made new ones, too. And they'd lost… Not all of them were convinced that the absence of the bags in Walter's car really meant that they had found Gemma and taken off like they were planning to do. Some of them believed that maybe, at some point, he'd come for them, or that the Doctor had taken them, so they might be given the hope that Gemma had been found, when really they were no closer to getting her back.

Artie had not been one of those, not for a minute. He knew, even if his only proof came out of an absence more than a presence of evidence, that this had been the sign he'd requested of the Doctor before they parted. He almost didn't care if the others didn't believe it, too… Almost. He knew now from experience over the past few months how hard it was to convince people sometimes, but he also knew there were situations where it was better off leaving the subject or the person alone. In this case, seeing as they might never know for sure one way or the other, he couldn't and wouldn't keep putting them through that.

Except one morning he woke up, and as he blinked, in the blurred sunlight of his room, he saw a strange shape in the middle of his window. He frowned, reaching out for his glasses so he could see what it was. There was definitely something in his window, a blue rectangle… with his name written on it. Pulling himself into his wheelchair, he approached, trying to see it better. He didn't have nearly as much trouble getting the thing – which was an envelope – as he had expected he would, which only proved it had been meant for him. Looking at his name traced in silver, he had a chill. He knew that handwriting. He hurried to open it and pull the paper from inside.

_Dear Arthur,_

_I've never been good with letters, and this one might be the strangest I've ever had to write. But unless the Doctor hasn't managed to clue you in just yet, you should know that I am now back on the TARDIS, and so is Walter. I returned to her, only moments after she'd seen me leave to come to Lima, all those months ago. I'll spare you the details, but I'm okay now, and that's what you should remember. From what both Walter and the Doctor have told me, I know things were a bit rocky when all of you went back home. I know you won't understand why, but if they don't believe the way you believe, then leave it be. Let them move on with their lives. It's time we stopped meddling._

_In the meantime, there is one more thing I need you to do. Go to Sugar, bring her to my old apartment, at five today. Show her this letter if you have to. I have a feeling she'll know what this is for._

_Be safe,_

_Your fake teacher, your 'aunt', your friend,_

_Gemma Lucas_

Artie had never dressed so quick in his life. He'd hurried his way through breakfast, too, before asking his father to take him to the Motta house. When they arrived there, Artie told him he would catch a ride back with Sugar later. He knew it was still early, so he texted Sugar to tell her he was outside. A moment later, he saw her looking down from her bedroom window before coming down to let him in. He hesitated to speak when he saw Mr. and Mrs. Motta were very near within earshot, but Sugar told him he didn't have to worry: she'd told them everything. He could see such a change in her, with only days apart. Whatever parts of herself she'd been keeping hidden all this time, she was starting to let them out, and they agreed with her. She'd never looked so happy. What she would present herself as when she was outside her home was anyone's guess, but Artie knew things were different now in the Motta home.

It had been just as they'd assured her it would be. Her parents were not frightened by the revelation of their daughter's origin, or how she'd come to be their daughter at all. They'd been surprised, naturally, but no more. They understood why she hadn't said anything, and the fact that she was able to say it now meant that she was safe, and that was the best news.

"Look what I found in my window this morning," he showed her the envelope, and she gasped, taking it. She recognized the handwriting, too.

"She's back!" she smiled, nearly bowling Artie over when she hugged him. "We'll go over there together, we… We should bring Quinn," she decided. For having started off as some of the unlikeliest friends, the three of them found themselves united in their trust for the Doctor. They weren't the only ones who'd accepted the possibility that the missing bags did mean Gemma's return, but they felt they stood apart for having stuck by the Doctor in the end.

"I already texted her," Artie revealed. "She's on her way."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	59. One Last Thing

**"The Class of 2012"**

**59. One Last Thing**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

The key to the apartment had been in the envelope with the letter. Artie, Sugar, and Quinn had arrived early, and when they'd let themselves in, they found two things. The first, as expected, was that they were the first ones there. The second thing they found was that the apartment was empty. All the furniture, had been removed, all the books… The place looked at least twice as big as it had done with everything still inside. There was absolutely nothing left here to prove that Gemma had ever lived in the apartment.

The girls sat on the ground, for lack a seat, on either side of Artie's wheelchair, and they waited, minute after minute, until just at the turn of the hour, and then they heard the sound, growing out of silence. A gust of wind picked up from nowhere, and the girls stood, hoping they weren't about to get squashed by a space ship. The TARDIS appeared before them, at the center of the living room. There was a brief moment where nothing happened, the trio staring at the blue box, waiting, and then the doors were pulled open to reveal the very much alive and well Gemma Lucas. She was just as happy to see them as they were to see her, and was mid-hug with Sugar when the Doctor popped her head out the TARDIS doors.

"May I suggest we move this reunion inside. Let's not keep me waiting…"

X

_London, in the year 2006_

The Doctor had taken Rose back to see her mother, and Jackie had been just nearly happy enough to see her daughter that she only briefly complained about the Doctor landing his ship in the middle of the apartment. He'd retreated into the ship, to see about a repair or two, leaving the Tyler women to have their chat.

It was Jackie who'd gotten up to answer the door when there had been a knock, and there she found a teenage girl. She had nothing in hand, so she couldn't have been selling anything. "Yes?" she waited.

"Are you… You're Rose's mother, aren't you?" the girl asked, revealing herself as American. She didn't look in any way threatening, but then Jackie Tyler had seen enough things in the past year and some to know appearances could be deceiving.

"Suppose I was. Who are you?"

"Is she here? I need to talk to her, and the Doctor, if he's here, too." At the mention of the Doctor, Jackie looked even more uncertain. But then the voices had reached Rose's ear, and she'd approached to find out who was at the door. The girl saw her, and her face lit up immediately. "Rose…"

"Do I know you?" she asked, stepping up. The girl did look familiar, but she couldn't place her.

"I know you only saw me a little while ago, or… I think… It's been longer for me," she started to explain.

"What are you doing?" All three looked to find the Doctor had joined them. "Don't just stand out there, shut the door, go on," he moved to pull the girl inside and lock the door behind her.

"Doctor?" Rose asked.

"How did you even know to find us?" the Doctor only kept looking the girl over, held his hand atop her head as though trying to measure her. "Ten years, almost eleven, only you couldn't have possibly flown here or it'd be more five years tops."

"How I got here is not important," she shook her head. "I know you've been trying to figure out why people were looking for me. I have information to give you, and you're going to want to have it. I know why the Judoon were after me on the Great Jade Moon."

"No, hold on… It can't be," Rose's eyes had gone wide. "Padra?" She turned to her.

"Sugar now, remember?" she smiled.

The Doctor had sent Jackie off to make tea, which had earned him more complaining than the TARDIS in the apartment, but she'd gone, leaving the other three alone to talk.

"Okay, so here's the gist of it," Sugar started. She remembered what the Doctor, the bowtie one, had told her and the others, so she had to go off of that as her guide. "Remember I told you about Toh, who looked after me. Well, he was from Tregh, and when he came to Mercer, he was very sick." She kept seeing the smallest of reactions on the Doctor as she spoke. He knew what Tregh was, he knew about the plague, but he let her go on. "But then my mother took him in, and she ended up curing him… with my blood. There's something in there that makes the cure for them, and someone must have found out, except they don't know everything, they don't know my name, what I look like, or even that I'm a girl. But they know the cure is out there."

"Who's they?" Rose asked.

"The Phisto Hub," Sugar told her. The Doctor sat back. "You can't go after them, or me, not yet," she shook her head at him. "I know you've been looking, both of you, trying to know why anyone was after me, right?" she looked from one to the other. They had, just before returning here. They'd gotten nowhere. "Leave it alone," Sugar begged them. "You have to wait, until our paths cross again, unexpectedly. That's when you have to go, because… other things need to happen first," she tried to explain without giving too much away. They didn't seem to be fighting her on it, trying to get more information out of her, and she breathed. Now that she'd given them her message, she was free to say as she pleased. "I'm really glad I got to see you both again," she smiled. "I guess I wanted to say thanks, and… I wanted you to know that… what you did for me, it was worth it," she added. There was plenty more she could have said, but the Doctor, the other one, the woman, had said not to reveal too much.

She'd left again just as Jackie had been bringing in the tea. Her visit had been brief, but Sugar didn't mind. Had she stayed any longer, it would have become difficult to leave, and also she knew it would only give them time to ask her questions she wasn't meant to answer.

Making it back to the TARDIS, she'd found Artie and Quinn in full conversation with the Doctor and Gemma and Walter. They all asked how it had gone, and she told them everything.

"So that's it, right? You're taking us back to Lima, and… it's all over?" Sugar asked. Everyone else had started on the way to closure, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that.

"Afraid so," the Doctor told her. "That is unless… Are you planning to return to Mercer, now that you can?" Sugar looked at her, part of her glad she'd offered, and part of her hating that she'd brought it up. She'd been thinking about it, not just now, but ever since she'd been brought to Earth. If she had the chance to go back, would she? Except it had been years, and she had become this person, living on Earth. The girl she'd been back on Mercer was only a little girl when she'd left. She wouldn't have known how to be part of that world anymore.

"No. I did get to go back, before, when we brought back Nira. Home is in Lima, with my parents, and my friends, and family." She tried not to look at Gemma or Walter, unsure how much they collectively knew. "I'm ready now."

TO BE CONCLUDED (TODAY)


	60. Endings, Beginnings, and Everything

**"The Class of 2012"**

**60. Endings, Beginnings, and Everything**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

If any of them had bothered to really look at him, they didn't have to think too hard to understand why he looked so at ease all of a sudden. He'd seen Gemma, he knew she was alive and she was okay. Artie knew the letter had said to leave well enough alone, but he wasn't about to go and lie if they'd figured it out on their own. Not all of them would be told, not all of them had bothered to put two and two together, and as much as part of him had debated somehow trying to lead them into figuring it out, so he could tell them, he had resisted the urge. He would keep his promise to her, and to the Doctor.

It was probably just as well that summer was starting up on them. They would have every chance of putting it all behind them, the school year, the adventure on the TARDIS… Gemma…

Artie had overheard Miss Pillsbury talking to Coach Beiste and Mr. Schuester once, about how Figgins had gotten an official resignation from Ginny Harrison. The principal was not bothered at all to see the flighty substitute go, but the teachers had been talking about how they were sad to see her go, that they wished they'd gotten a chance to say goodbye to her but that from what they knew she'd left Ohio already, and none of them was all too clear on where she was headed.

Knowing what he knew, about who she really was, and how she fit into their world, he tried not to smile too wide when he was around them. If she was Rachel's granddaughter, then what was to say those three would never run into their former student, years down the road, and meet her family? Would they look at her and remember her, connect the dots? Maybe they would just shake their heads and tell themselves they were only imagining things.

But he knew he would see her again, and that he would have a great part to play in her life, her formative years, the way she'd done with him. When she'd first arrived here, when he'd only been trying to see if it was really her, he'd wanted to talk to her, to give her thanks. Now he knew that, somehow, she had always known how glad he was for her, because she'd had her uncle Arthur there all along.

X

_New York City, in the year 2073_

Even as the TARDIS had set down, she'd been feeling her nerves on edge. She hadn't set foot in her old house, her parents' house, in so long now. Even when she'd be off with the Doctor for an extended amount of time, she had never been away from home for anywhere near this long. Seven months she'd been gone, even if it hadn't really been that long for them… It had felt like an eternity to her.

She'd gone and opened the doors, and already the scent was so familiar it nearly knocked her off her feet. She was home. She looked over her shoulder, smiling to Walter and the Doctor and tilting her head so they might follow her out. They'd landed up in the attic.

They climbed down the stairs, and they'd barely made it down to the second floor that they heard an eruption of barks followed by the skittering of… "Paulie," Gemma breathed as the large dog came bounding up for her. She'd never been so happy to see her. They'd raised her from a pup, her sister and her, but Gemma had gotten her when she'd moved out. By her sister's own admission, she could always take care of her better than anyone.

"Mom, is that you?" a voice called, and Gemma looked up, smiling when she saw the startled look on her little sister's face, standing outside their old bedroom door. "Gem? When did you get… back?" Ginny Lucas' eyes had travelled up to spot the Doctor – who she knew – and Walter – who she didn't. "Hello," she nodded, stepping forward.

"Ginny, I'd like you to meet Walter… my boyfriend," Gemma introduced him, bowing her head to hide her smirk when she saw her sister's immediate disappointment.

"Oh… hi. I'm Ginny," she waved.

"Yeah, that won't be confusing," Walter breathed, and now Gemma was trying to hide a laugh, seeing the puzzled look on Ginny's face. She'd have to explain to her how she'd borrowed her name for all those months, how Walter had known her by it for the first few.

But that would have to wait, because now they heard something else, from below, in the living room. Gemma looked to the Doctor, but she'd disappeared all of a sudden, and Walter was nodding up to the attic, which she took to understand she'd gone to her TARDIS so that she might take it away from here… before the other TARDIS landed.

"Gin, we weren't here, alright?" Gemma stood. Paulie wouldn't leave her side. "No matter what, we're not here, not until he's gone, got it?" she grabbed Walter's hand and dragged him into the nearest room – the bathroom – and shut the door. Paulie had been locked out, and the dog whimpered, pawing at the door.

"But… what…" Ginny only found more confusion at every turn and no actual answers. But looking over the banister, she could see the familiar blue box, from which her parents emerged, with the kind of look on their faces like they'd just been through hell and back. There was a man at the door, and the way he spoke to them, too low for her to hear, it would have seemed like this was his ship, but she could have sworn they'd said the Doctor was the last of her kind, so who was he?

She didn't have to wonder for much longer. The man had gone back into the TARDIS, and the ship had went away. Julian had his arms around Sophie now, and the way her shoulders were shaking… Why was she crying? And… why was _he_ crying, too?

"Mom? Dad?" she called, coming down the steps. The way they'd looked up, she would have said they'd hoped for someone else, but they didn't look any less happy to see her.

"Ginny…" her mother had breathed, moving to pull her into her arms.

"What's going on? What happened? Who was that man in the…"

"Sweetheart, we need to talk. It's about your sister," Julian had put his hand to her shoulder.

"Yeah, she…" Ginny tried to turn, but her parents were still too close. "Hey, he's gone now!" she shouted up the stairs, just as they heard a rumble from above, like something had thumped down in the attic. A moment later, a movement out of the corner of her eye had made Sophie look up, and the relief of seeing her elder daughter coming down the stairs was enough to bowl her over, but she went to her, touched her hands, felt her cheeks, and she held on to her.

"It's okay," Gemma told her, turning her eyes up to meet her father's. "It's over," she promised.

"Sorry about that," the Doctor came down to stand behind Walter. "Two versions of the same ship in one place, no chance that wouldn't have caught my attention. Sophie, Julian," she nodded to the pair of them. "Told you I'd bring her back, didn't I? Although, truth be told, she brought herself back. But you don't need to hear about all that right now. Say, Walter, have you had the grand tour?" she pulled the man back up to the attic. "You'll be coming with us, better get you settled in. The last thing I need is for you to get lost because I was a bad host…" It was the last Gemma heard of them before they were out of earshot, but knowing this was the Doctor's way of giving her time with her parents and her sister, she didn't stop her.

Knowing her mother, knowing what both of her parents had been put through over these months, and that day at the Phisto Hub, and Tregh… Walter would have plenty of time to get acclimated to the TARDIS, because there was no way that she could leave, not yet. She needed to give her family the chance to stop worrying so much… and she needed time for them to hers again, too, for a little while.

But in time they would go, that much was for certain. The Doctor belonged up there, and for all the time she'd spent stationed in Lima, Gemma knew a part of her belonged up there, too, needed to be among the stars, here and there, now and then… Every night that took them closer to seeing it all, Gemma and Walter would contemplate one choice and another. There were no limits. They had all of time and space, the Doctor, and each other, and they were ready to go.

THE END


End file.
